News 2021
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28 June 2021
Renewed call for independent, public inquiry into treatment of Glasgow asylum seekers
Add your name in support of a public inquiry Positive Action in Housing is renewing its call for a public inquiry into the treatment of Glasgow asylum seekers housed by Mears Group. 3,340 organisations and private citizens, including Scottish MPs and the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, have now backed our demand. …
24 June 2021
Timeline of Glasgow’s deadly accommodation crisis
More refugees die here in the UK, in Home Office accommodation, than in Calais or trying to cross the Channel. Refugees are the world’s most resilient people. Many have crossed the Sahara desert and made it through the hell of Libya, facing unimaginable hardship to get this far.…
24 June 2021
12 months since the Park Inn Tragedy in Glasgow, one in three hotel asylum seekers say their mental health has deteriorated
A year after the Park Inn Tragedy, one in three asylum seekers accommodated for long periods in m hotels report that their mental health has deteriorated. Positive Action in Housing carried out a survey of hotel asylum seekers in Glasgow. It analysed the responses of 230 asylum seekers living under the…
19 June 2021
Asylum housing contractor condemned for inhumane Housing conditions
The Mears Group has accommodated a victim of slavery and modern trafficking, and sufferer if severe PTSD, in dangerous and delapidated accommodation in Newcastle. See photographs from today. M, a nominee for an Amnesty Bravery Award, and a well known Volunteer in Newcastle, has bravely decided to speak out because…
10 June 2021
Call to Action – the Aspen Card Crisis
Add your name in support Over 80* refugee and migrant organisations, lawyers and academics across Scotland, Wales and England have signed an open letter to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to raise questions about the ongoing Aspen Card Crisis and the card contractor PrePaid Financial Services. Almost three weeks after…
9 June 2021
Asylum madness
Reprinted from the Private Eye – June 9 2021 As hundreds of desperate asylum seekers are still struggling to feed themselves and their families over two weeks after the failed introduction of new pre-paid cash cards, Priti Patel faces tricky questions over the choice of the new private contractor responsible for the…
7 June 2021
Aspen card crisis continues – but still no apology from Patel
Thousands of asylum seekers, including families with babies and children, are still being left without money for food, almost two weeks after the failed introduction of new pre-paid cash cards by the Home Office’s contractor PrePaid Financial Services, after it took over from Sodexo. Verity, a mother of…
2 June 2021
Having problems with your Aspen Card ? Take action now.
For U.K. Asylum Seekers. Positive Action in Housing has prepared this *digital self help tool* to help asylum seekers, lawyers dealing with aspen card issues The Aspen Card Scandal is affecting around 19K-20K asylum seekers in the U.K. and around 1500 in Glasgow. The Home Office has issued 6,000…
1 June 2021
The Aspen Card Crisis and the Home Office’s bureaucratic slow violence against refugees
The Home Office has privately admitted that thousands of asylum seekers continue to be left without working payment cards for more than ten days after their financial support was cut off during a Home Office contract changeover.
28 May 2021
The Aspen Card Crisis
Thousands of asylum seeking families are believed to have been left without any money for food or essential purchases for over a week because of a shambolic changeover of debit cards. Complaints have flooded in to Positive Action in Housing – and NGOs across the U.K. – since May 24,…
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