Failed asylum seekers not given enough help say charities
Tower block suicides prompt inquiry calls
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Charities and MPs have called for an investigation into the amount of help given to failed asylum seekers, after three people jumped to their deaths from a Glasgow tower block.
Strathclyde police are investigating the deaths of two Russian men and a woman who were found dead on Sunday at the bottom of the 30-storey block, owned by Glasgow Housing Association, in the Red Road area of the city.
GHA has 16 tenancies and 22 temporary flats in the high-rise. YMCA Glasgow, which provides temporary accommodation for asylum seekers while the UK Border Agency deals with claims, has 65 properties in the building.
Willie Bain, MP for Glasgow north east, was due to meet prime minister Gordon Brown this week to discuss the ‘exceptional tragedy’.
He said he wanted to talk to Mr Brown about possible additional care for vulnerable asylum seekers and more support for those whose claims have been determined.
Robina Qureshi, spokesperson for Positive Action in Housing, a charity which helps ethnic minorities in Scottish communities, said the charity wants a public inquiry into the suicides ‘with a full release of all communications between the Home Office, the YMCA and Strathclyde police in the weeks before and on the day of the suicide’.
It also wants an immediate end to enforced removals by the UK Border Agency from the Red Road flats and ‘evictions by the YMCA’, she added.
Chief executive of YMCA Glasgow Joseph Connolly denied the charity evicted people unless there was alternative accommodation in place.
He also said: ‘We do not undertake joint visits with UK Border Agency or, indeed, any other organisations, and it is our understanding that UK Border Agency inform asylum seekers of their decisions in writing.’
A spokesperson for the UKBA said it had informed the family it was making arrangements to return them to Canada ‘where they had been granted protection’.
He added that ‘no imminent action to remove them from the UK had been planned’.
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Readers' comments (3)
john bull | 15/03/2010 1:32 pm
Another sad case (Ive read it in detail), giving people hope where there should be none. If the system had been tighter, they would never have been admitted in the first place.
They had been accepted in Canada (without any real justification) , then when no doubt they weren't getting all the benefits they thought they were due, tried all round E.U. till they got to the holy grail of asylum seekers. Another case of
failing to enforce a humane policy of no entry at borders or return to your last country within seven days, when caught.
The poor man appears to have been in need of asylum in a Russian Asylum, its a pity PHA jumps at the chance to knock everybody except the people who KNOW they are not genuine Asylum seekers.
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Pam | 17/03/2010 2:03 pm
What a pity John Bull sees fit to repeat the tabloid stereotypes about asylum seekers. As someone who works with people seeking asylum, I can assure him that the UK is not the 'holy grail'. Far from it - we are significantly less generous to our asylum seekers than many other countries. A recent survey by Refugee Action showed that most asylum seekers did not know they would be entitled to any benefit at all here - let alone how much it would be - they expected to work and were horrified when they discovered that they were forbidden to do so, often for years on end, until they were granted (or refused, and 80% of cases are refused) leave to remain. Asylum seekers receive less money (£35 a week for a single adult) than a Briton on Jobseekers' allowance, they are put up in hard to let accommodation and have no say about where it is, they can be moved at 48 hours notice. The UK ranks 13th in Europe in the numbers of asylum seekers it hosts per head of population (France and Germany top the league) It does seem that the man in the tower block suicide case was suffering from mental health problems - which may well explain why the family did not stay in Canada where conditions for asylum seekers are considerably better than they are here. It is therefore both ignorant and unjust to use this case as a stick with which to beat other asylum seekers.
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john bull | 18/03/2010 2:32 pm
hi Pam,
I was not using it as a stick, but as an example.
but thank you, your case is crushed under the weight of your own facts.
So asylum seekers get free housing and £35 a week for years, and after carefull investigation and appeals 80% are turned down!!!!!!
You may not be aware,but we have 3 million unemployed, so AS's should never be allowed to work.
As to housing we have millions on waiting lists for social housing. In this county, the wait could be up to 20 years!
the point I made, solves your problem, we need clear and firm guidelines. Japan and other countries zero tolerance makes it clear where they stand.
We have a rich diversity of ethnic groups in the UK, proud to be British but aware there are limits on population numbers, based on houses, services and money.
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