A grim asylum for tortured exiles in Britain

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/11/asylum-seekers-britain-grim-uk-refuge

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Asylum seekers sometimes say the accommodation the Home Office provides for them while they are waiting for their claim to be determined is a punishment for daring to come here and seek sanctuary.

Rats, cockroaches and other vermin are frequent bedfellows; damp is normal; hostility and aggression from Home Office sub-contractors and sub sub-contractors who talk scornfully of "these people" is not unusual.

The home affairs select committee report into asylum, published today, bears this out. MPs say they are "alarmed" about the "appalling" standards of accommodation.

Vulnerable asylum seekers, many of whom have survived torture and other traumas in their home countries, are often expected to share rooms with complete strangers who may behave aggressively towards them. Asthmatics are carelessly coupled with chain smokers, while scope for religious or cultural clashes between roommates is not always considered. Lone women have complained of unwelcome sexual attention by accommodation agency staff who have the key to their property and can slip in at any time.

Asylum seekers are fearful of challenging authority and this gives unscrupulous landlords licence to cut corners. One group of asylum seekers living in a property provided by Home Office sub-contractors had complained about a smell of gas in their home. The landlords said they had visited and could smell no gas. No smell, no problem. The National Grid emergency service was called by a visitor to the property. The gas engineer found a gas leak and immediately shut off the gas supply to prevent a possible explosion. The landlord was furious that this emergency service had been called. "You should have left us to deal with this," he shouted.

One of the residents, his arms and back crisscrossed with torture scars from a series of attacks in his country, looked terrified as the landlord cursed and tutted.

"This man is linked to the Home Office," he whispered. "I hope this complaint about the gas is not going to affect my asylum case. True, having survived torture in my country and then another attack when I was put into detention in the UK I do not really want to die in a gas explosion. But still I'm frightened now."

The Home Office's latest annual report states that it is in dispute with five former accommodation providers and is expecting to have to pay out £37.5m to them. It refuses to give details. Clearly something has gone wrong although we may never know what this chunk of our taxes is being paid out for.

And it is not only asylum seekers who suffer when it comes to accommodation. The government was planning to roll out a national system of checks on migrant tenants by private landlords. Those found to be renting properties to people who have no right to be in the UK will be fined. After pressure on the government from Nick Clegg this controversial scheme will be piloted in one area before being unleashed on the migrant population at large. Not only will this proposed scheme be burdensome for landlords. If someone submits residence documents that look bona fide but later turn out not to be the landlords will be fined. Landlords are not trained immigration investigators and should not be expected to do this job. And incidentally many of them are migrants too.

If landlords feel the risk of letting a property to anyone who fits the category of "other" is too great they will lose business and more migrants will end up homeless. Bona fide landlords and tenants will suffer and increased homelessness will create more social problems that the government will ultimately have to deal with.

Those awaiting a decision on their asylum claim and other migrants who are here legitimately, have the right to basic, decent accommodation. The government has a duty to provide it or to ensure there is access to it whether or not they think that denying these rights is a vote winner.

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