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I met Haitham Saada on a radio programme about asylum seekers. He clutched his side to alleviate the pain of three broken ribs as he described the mob of 30 youths who beat him and his brother into a coma and 10 days intensive care. ‘I wanted to come to Scotland because people have a good heart, but I’ve had enough; I want to take my family and go to London.’ He’s now living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow, hasn’t seen his son for a month amid fears for his safety should he return to Sighthill. Haitham’s story reflects the feelings of many of the 4,000 refugees currently housed in Glasgow under the government’s dispersal scheme. He doesn’t see ‘friendly Scots’, only the baying mobs of a country he thought was sanctuary. For decades, immigrant communities in Glasgow have favoured poor housing in multiracial areas over a ‘racial harassment high rise’ and the consequent merry-go-round of transfers. The perpetrators invariably get off scot-free because of poor evidence, few warnings, and no evictions. It is this legacy of failure which refugees have been bussed into and led to the Council threatening eviction to racist tenants earlier this month. Strathclyde police also reported a monthly 200% rise in racist attacks against refugees. In the desperation to fill empty houses with asylum seekers, little thought has been given to preparing communities or protecting a clearly high-risk group. Extremist right-wing groups are seizing the opportunities. In March, 2,000 homes in Barrhead were sent a newsletter by the National Front claiming a "flood tide of bogus asylum seekers" was set to swamp the area. (The local Council planned to offer 50 empty, vandalised houses, earmarked for demolition, to asylum seekers).  Despite the growing problems, Glasgow is taking the largest number of asylum seekers of all Scottish councils. By the end of the year around 8,000 will be here. In contrast, Edinburgh has refused to sign a contract. Three other Scottish councils are offering 210 houses.  Clearly the system is failing and betraying us all. After all, only an inhumane system could insist that young children should live in a hostel occupied by 150 single males; that refugees beaten to near death by a mob in their local community must continue to live there; that ‘ordinary’ council tenants can enjoy all the rights of the new Scottish Housing Bill while their next door neighbour’s no-choice tenancy is dictated from Croydon. What kind of social inclusion is that? It is an inept country that allows its our MSPs to have their hands tied behind their backs on asylum and offer little more than political tea and sympathy while watching the inhumanity of the dispersal programme destroy communities that could otherwise thrive. Dispersal must be dumped in favour of supporting asylum seekers to make full use of the diversity of housing tenure, public, private and voluntary. We should favour voluntary housing providers who can invest in local communities and disfavour the profiteers intent on cashing in on the vulnerable. More than this, we should find the political will to inject European, lottery and private money into the long ignored sink estates, knock down the vandalised, neglected and empty houses noone else wants, and rebuild and consolidate the new multiracial communities that Sighthill and other schemes have now become.

Robina Qureshi

Director

Positive Action in Housing