“Not a single recipient of this letter would accept to be moved in such a way, on human rights grounds and on grounds of public health and safety, yet you see fit to let this be done to someone’s son, brother husband or father who is seeking refuge in this country?”
Below is a letter which was sent last night to Home Office officials and members of the Mears Board, include David Miles, CEO , and Julia Unwin, Board Member (and former CEO of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation), Chris Philp, the Immigration minister and copied to 3 Scottish MPs – Chris Stephens, Anne Mclaughlin and Alison Thewliss MP regards two of our service users currently held at Tartan Lodge.
We have also copied this letter to Ms Abi Tierney, Director General’s office to ask that it be considered as part of the Home Office’s “evaluation of the accommodation and support services experienced by asylum seekers in Glasgow during COVID-19”. As a frontline charity leading on the work to respond to the humanitarian crisis created as a result of hotel moves, we are unaware of the dates for this evaluation to begin, nor have we been approached to share the experiences that people have raised with us. We have a number of service users with lived experience of the asylum system during the last 4 months, who may be willing to come forward.
Positive Action in Housing is calling for an independent public inquiry, details of which can be found here.
“Dear Ms Kinghorn,
Mr FAF | Mr KG, Tartan Lodge Hostel 235 Alexandra Parade, Glasgow
I refer to your letter of August 7 acknowledging my letter of the same date regarding our concerns about the unreasonable manner in which vulnerable refugees are being transferred from hotels to homes.
Thank you for sharing our correspondence with your colleagues, however it would appear that none of it actually made any difference and noone seems to have acted on the concerns raised by the above named.
Today, Wednesday 12 August, 2020, our clients were told they would be moved in the morning, Thursday 13 August 2020.
Neither F or K has been told the address that they are being moved to. They have never seen the accommodation being offered; Neither man knows who they will be sharing with; They are each highly anxious after the experience they suffered last week of being each moved in to dirty accommodation on separate occasions with a man who appeared to have severe mental health problems and did not speak their language. No risk checks were carried out after Mears Group staff were alerted the first time. Karam fled after one night out of fear. Our clients therefore wish to inform you, again, through ourselves as their representatives, that:
- F and K first require sight of the dispersal accommodation prior to agreeing on whether such accommodation is suitable for their occupation
- In light of the global pandemic they wish to have written confirmation that the accommodation is certified as clean in light of health and safety and Covid 19.
- F and K are both Arabic speakers and ask that they be placed in shared accommodation with each other, as they stayed in Tartan Lodge for several months and given that they have no other family, they should not be expected to share with strangers, especially after last weeks experience. Because of Covid 19, they do not wish to share with a stranger and this is in line with government guidelines on social distancing and Covid 19. After Park Inn, where one man stabbed six people including three fellow asylum seekers, it would not be an unreasonable request.
- We would also request that you provide our clients with a period of 3 days to reflect on the offer of accommodation and obtain advice prior to making a decision on whether to sign an agreement and move.
Until these reasonable requests are met, our clients feel too anxious to move and I ask that you urgently review the situation.
We would reiterate the need for you to act in accordance with our client’s contractual rights and to provide the address and copies of all relevant documents relating to their occupation at a Mears property prior to any such move, and to confirm the accommodation has been cleaned for Health and Safety reasons and in light of Covid 19. We are worried because we are witnessing people being put into dirty accommodation.
I am copying in Home Office officials and members of the Mears Board, include David Miles, CEO , and Julia Unwin, Board Member, so that you are each left in no doubt of how extraordinarily unreasonable the Mears transfers are.
Not a single recipient of this letter would accept to be moved in such a way, on human rights grounds and on grounds of public health and safety, yet you see fit to let this be done to someone’s son, brother husband or father who is seeking refuge in this country?
Finally, I am copying this correspondence, with permission of our clients, to their MP, the Council and others with a relevant interest, in the hope that someone takes action by listening and addressing people’s suffering instead of simply executing a contract for profit.
Regards our client, please confirm your position.
Yours sincerely
Robina Qureshi
Director