Protesters call for better deal for asylum seekers

DEMONSTRATION: Campaigners say tragedy in Glasgow entirely avoidable

A protest against the “dreadful conditions” faced by asylum seekers is to take place today.

Stand Up To Racism will take part in a protest in Glasgow against the conditions asylum seekers have been living in since lockdown began.

On Friday, six people were stabbed by an asylum seeker at the Park Inn hotel in the city, which the group has said was “an avoidable tragedy”.

In a statement, the anti-racism group wrote: “Throughout the Covid19 pandemic, asylum seekers, asylum rights activists, charities and others in civic Scotland have been warning about the dreadful conditions faced by asylum seekers who were forced to move, often at no more than half-an-hour’s notice, from their settled homes and into inadequate hotel accommodation.

“The asylum seekers had their paltry daily allowance of £5.39 removed.

“Unable to buy daily essentials or top-up mobile phones, they were isolated and often fed inadequate food.

“Many talked of feeling imprisoned in their hotel rooms.”

The group is calling for the allowance to be reinstated, as well as a move back into longer-term housing.

It added that the Home Office and Mears Group, the company paid to house refugees, had “serious questions to answer”.

The statement continued: “Many asylum seekers are living with trauma or long-term mental health problems associated with their harrowing life experiences. Transferring them to isolated hotel rooms beside strangers, without suitable vulnerability checks by either Mears or the Home Office was always a terrible idea.

“There has been an overwhelming response to the call by charity Positive Action in Housing and others for donations of clothing and other items for the asylum seekers who have had to be removed from the Park Inn Hotel.

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Many talked of feeling imprisoned in their hotel rooms.

STAND UP TO RACISM

“Offered inadequate care by Mears Group and the Home Office, once again, they have been assisted by the good people of Glasgow.”

The protest will take place outside the Home Office on Brand Street between 6 and 7pm.

It comes as police confirmed one of the victims of the Glasgow hotel attack was discharged from hospital.

Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, from Sudan, was shot dead by officers after six people – including 42-year-old police constable David Whyte – were injured in the incident at the hotel on West George Street.

The others injured were men aged 17, 18, 20, 38 and 53.

Two are staff members at the hotel and three are asylum seekers.

Police Scotland said yesterday, following one of the people injured being released, that four victims were in a stable condition in hospital while one was in a critical but stable condition.