Dignity plea over refugee services
ASYLUM: A Yorkshire MP has called for the company taking over the region’s asylum seeker accommodation to deliver a service that offers “dignified, safe and clean accommodation as a minimum”.
The Government announced this week that outsourcing giant G4S, would no longer run the service from September.
A YORKSHIRE MP has called for the company taking over the region’s asylum seeker accommodation to deliver a service that gives those fleeing war and persecution “dignified, safe and clean accommodation as a minimum”.
The Government announced this week that outsourcing giant G4S, which had been running the contract to provide housing for thousands of asylum seekers across Yorkshire since 2012, would no longer run the service from September.
Instead, the 10-year contract has been awarded to housing and social care provider Mears Group, which will also be responsible for asylum seeker accommodation and support in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
In August, 14 Yorkshire council leaders wrote to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to warn of “catastrophic failure” for the system which provides accommodation for those seeking refugee status, with some local authorities considering pulling out of the scheme.
The £600m contract to run the service between 2019 and 2029 had to be re-tendered as the bid by G4S, who had suffered financial losses while running the service, was not accepted by the Home Office.
In October, Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel criticised the standard of housing provided by G4S in a Commons debate and said “outsourcing companies acting like vultures [were] failing our most vulnerable”.
He said this week: “I am pleased that G4S have not been rewarded for bad practice with lucrative government contracts, though I would like to take this opportunity to repeat my calls for independent oversight over asylum accommodation outsourcing so that the same mistakes are not made again. I hope that Mears will deliver a service that gives those fleeing war and persecution dignified, safe and clean accommodation as a minimum.”
Dave Brown, of Migration York-
Companies acting like vultures are failing our most vulnerable. Leeds North West MP
Alex Sobel.
shire, a partnership led by local councils, said the announcement “represents a change of provider and could offer new approach to asylum housing in Yorkshire, with a real opportunity for better support for people seeking refugee protection, alongside a more co-ordinated fairer system for local communities”.
Gordon Brockington, of G4S, said: “Our existing asylum seeker accommodation contracts will end in August 2019 and we remain committed to delivering them to a high standard until the new service providers assume the contracts later this year.”