Asylum seeker who stabbed six made 72 calls before attack
The Home Office “has not learned any lessons” from a tragic incident where an asylum seeker who was shot dead after stabbing six people, it was claimed today, after it emerged he had called authorities more than 70 times before his attack.
Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, was one of hundreds of asylum seekers moved into hotels in Glasgow at the start of lockdown.
It is understood he had contacted the Home Office, the housing and social care provider Mears, and the charity Migrant Help 72 times about his health and accommodation in the period leading up to the attack.
An internal Home Office evaluation, seen by the BBC, said his calls “should have acted as a warning”.
The Scottish Refugee Council said the Home Office’s decision to continue to house refugees in hotels after the incident showed that it had not learned any lessons from the Glasgow tragedy.
It also found Adam had complained to staff in the hotel and was in touch with the Home Office about an assisted voluntary return to his home country.
The review is said to have made various recommendations, including developing a system to identify patterns of contact which may cause concern, and ensuring hotel staff are given “mental health awareness and de-escalation training.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office said “significant” changes have now been made.
On June 26 2020, Adam stabbed six people in the Park Inn hotel in Glasgow, including three other asylum seekers, police constable David Whyte and two members of hotel staff.
Sabir Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said: “This report speaks to issues we knew were present all along in regards to a lack of preparation and communication around the move into hotels, and that hotel staff had to fulfil responsibilities they should never have been faced with. These circumstances must be confined to the past. Hotel staff should not have to be trained to support people with complex mental health needs. The fact is, hotel staff cannot be should not have been expected to act as specialist mental health practitioners here.”