Bilal* was still wearing his surgical stockings from cancer surgery, when the Mears Group told him they were moving him in the next day or two from a Glasgow hotel. I asked him to find out where he was being moved, so we had time to organise support in the local area.
The call came later that day, 20 minutes after being moved in. Mears had moved him and another asylum seeker to a dirty, bare flat, in a state of disrepair. After months spent in a hotel with no money or support, he did not know where he was or where the shops were. He did not know what was on his Aspen card. Their Wi-fi was “borrowed” from each other and data was running low.
Within an hour of our call to volunteers, #Helen made her way to their address with food. Joleen and her daughter Mila took fresh fruit and veg, and fish. Neil took household cupboard food. On Saturday, Helen showed the boys the shops and local places and put them in touch with other recently moved asylum seekers. There is a small community of friends for them now ready to help. They are connected and we can step back and focus on the next emergency coming our way. The support of volunteers is humbling and inspiring at the same time.
This is how it is with Mears.
They don’t tell you where you are being moved to. Or if the place is clean or in a poor state of repair. Or when you will move. Or who with. By the time you are on the doorstep of the place you are moving to, your too disoriented to complain, especially since your bags are packed and you signed out of the hotel. Perhaps your too fearful. And why not? Mears is connected to the Home Office, who decides your asylum case.
I’ve never seen such widespread fear of speaking out against a “landlord”.
The stock response of the Home Office and the Mears Group to all the concerns we raise is that they “don’t recognise” them. What does that even mean? It means that the Mears contract will be executed regardless of your need or vulnerability, and unless your a box or a parcel, hell mend you.
They don’t have a clue about the needs of human beings, let alone a community as vulnerable as this. The more I hear it firsthand, the more I get to understand what Adnan Walid Elbi must have gone through when he asked for help and never got it. Did he too feel as if he was shouting in the dark but no one was listening?
There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in this city and no one in authority is doing anything about it. Do they care?
This is the Mears contract in Glasgow.
Dump people into the first available accommodation without considering their needs. The instances of dirty accommodation, faulty electrical appliances, neglect and systematic isolation and impoverishment of human beings are happening with alarming regularity.
After the death of Adnan Elbi and the Park Inn tragedy, we do not want another person to die or get hurt. We are mitigating some of the worst of it with a proactive team of volunteers taking food and cleaning stuff and more.
But this is not our contract. The people of Glasgow are clearing up the mess while Mears picks up £1.2B. There’s 9 more years still left to run. We’re speaking out about it because if we don’t this will be become so normalised it won’t merit comment or scrutiny. In the meantime, we are calling for a public inquiry – not an “evaluation”. And will keep documenting the evidence of neglect.
Robina Qureshi
Call To Action:
https://www.paih.org/call-to-action-2020/.
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*not their real name