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Asylum seekers made to wear wristbands to get food Asylum seekers made to wear wristbands to get food
(about 7 hours later)
Asylum seekers in Cardiff are being made to wear brightly coloured wristbands in order to receive food, it has emerged. A private company that provides meals for asylum seekers in Cardiff has said it will drop demands for them to wear wristbands as a condition for receiving food.
There are concerns the wristbands make them clearly identifiable and could single them out for abuse. Around 200 asylum seekers in the city were told to put on the brightly coloured bands.
They were told they had to wear the bands in order to be entitled to meals. But some called it dehumanising and said they had become targets for abuse.
Labour MP for Cardiff Central Jo Stevens has tweeted that she had been given an undertaking that the practice will stop on Monday. It comes after asylum seekers in Middlesbrough said they were targeted after their doors were painted red.
Eric Ngalle told BBC Wales that he spent nearly two months at Lynx House in Cardiff, and challenged the need to wear the wrist bands, but was unable to change the policy. A company housing the asylum seekers later said it would repaint the doors after concerns that people could be singled out as immigrants.
He says he was told it was a Home Office directive, but added that none of the asylum seekers believed this explanation. On Sunday, Labour MP for Cardiff Central Jo Stevens said she had been in touch with the operations director for Clearsprings Group - the company contracted by the Home Office to run the service in Cardiff.
He added that he felt having to wear the wristbands was 'labelling' and 'stressful'. She tweeted that she had been given an undertaking that the practice would stop on Monday.
Chloe Marong, who works at the Trinity Centre in Cardiff, which provides support for asylum seekers, said that many are unhappy about the wristbands. One man, Eric Ngalle, told BBC Wales he had spent nearly two months at Lynx House in Cardiff and had challenged the need to wear the wrist bands - but he was unable to change the policy.
She told BBC Wales she thought the treatment was dehumanising and opening people up for abuse. He said he was told it was a Home Office directive, but added that none of the asylum seekers believed this explanation.
On Sunday Jo Stevens tweeted that she had been in touch with the Operations Director for Clearsprings Group, the company contracted by the Home Office to run the service in Cardiff, and had been given an undertaking that the wristband requirement will end on Monday. He said he felt having to wear the wristbands was "labelling" and "stressful".
Earlier this week asylum seekers in Middlesbrough said they were targeted because their house doors had been painted red. Elsewhere Chloe Marong, who works at the Trinity Centre in Cardiff which provides support for asylum seekers, said that many people were unhappy about the wristbands.
She told BBC Wales she thought the treatment was dehumanising and left people vulnerable to abuse.