{"id":14584,"date":"2020-07-07T13:35:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T13:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=14584"},"modified":"2022-02-23T10:36:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T10:36:31","slug":"glasgow-and-reading-killings-raise-major-questions-about-treatment-of-asylum-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2020\/07\/07\/glasgow-and-reading-killings-raise-major-questions-about-treatment-of-asylum-seekers\/","title":{"rendered":"GLASGOW AND READING KILLINGS RAISE MAJOR QUESTIONS ABOUT TREATMENT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

E&L<\/i>\u00a0is posting an article on the attacks and killing in Glasgow and a letter about the killings in Reading. Both address the issues raised by the treatment of asylum seekers. The article written by \u00a0Mike Picken (Socialist Resistance, SSP and Renfrewshire RIC) addresses the \u00a0stabbing of six people and the police killing of the attacker, Badreddin Abadlla Adan, \u00a0originally from Sudan. The letter was\u00a0written by Jim Cook of Reading, where\u00a0Khairi Saadallahas, an asylum seeker from Libya, killed three people. It was first\u00a0\u00a0published by Weekly Worker.<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

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GLASGOW KILLING RAISE MAJOR QUESTIONS ABOUT TREATMENT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a major event in Scotland, one person was killed by armed police in a Glasgow hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.\u00a0The call \u2018not to politicise\u2019 the incident from SNP and Labour politicians is completely misplaced.<\/p>\n

As the dramatic events unfolded on the afternoon of Friday 26 June, the BBC first reported that three people had been killed in a knife stabbing incident. This turned out to be untrue: six people including a police officer were seriously injured and hospitalised, while the apparent perpetrator was shot in a rapid and large armed police response in Glasgow city centre.<\/p>\n

Interviews with eye-witnesses seemed to indicate that while all the 100 residents of the hotel were asylum seekers, there were also hotel staff on duty who may have been victims.\u00a0 Motivation for the knife attack and details of the victims other than the police officer are not yet confirmed at the time of writing, though\u00a0Sky News<\/a>\u00a0is reporting that the perpetrator was an asylum seeker about whom mental health concerns had already been reported.<\/p>\n

But while everyone will wish the victims a speedy recovery, the events raise important political questions about the use of the hotel and the treatment of asylum seekers by the UK government and its private contractors.<\/p>\n

Glasgow\u2019s Hotel Asylum Seekers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The incident happened at the Park Inn Hotel, one of six in Glasgow used by a large outsourcing private company, the Mears Group plc, on behalf of the UK government Home Office. They Mears agreed a ten-year long contract with the UK Home Office in 2019 worth over one billion pounds to provide accommodation for asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the UK\u2019s lockdown, the Mears Group had relocated nearly 400 Glasgow asylum seekers who had been living in the city as part of a longstanding Home Office \u2018dispersal\u2019 policy.\u00a0 This policy dates back 20 years to the Blair Labour government and moves asylum seekers who usually arrive in south east England to other locations across the UK, such as Glasgow, described by a Tory minister in 2015 as \u201careas where there is a greater supply of suitable and cheaper accommodation\u201d.<\/p>\n

With only a few minutes\u2019 notice to pack their belongings, the hundreds of asylum seekers living in a wide range of properties across Glasgow were rounded up in April and moved into six major city hotels empty during the lockdown.\u00a0 Positive Action in Housing (PAiH) [1], a Glasgow-based charity working to support asylum seekers, raised concerns in May with both the UK Home Office and the Scottish Government [2] over the treatment of the asylum seekers by the Mears Group.<\/p>\n

They particularly highlighted that relocating hundreds of people in vans carrying three or four people at a time appeared to breach completely the Scottish Government\u2019s then imposition of a total lockdown and the strong message to \u201cStay Home\u201d; that people should only move if absolutely essential for medical or other reasons. PAiH argue that it was completely unnecessary to move the asylum seekers. The previous landlords accommodating the asylum seekers were simply told that they would no longer be paid in circumstances in which it was clearly almost impossible for them to get new tenants.<\/p>\n

PAiH Director, Robina Qureshi, raised numerous complaints about the treatment of asylum seekers in the hotels including the lack of social distancing during meal times, the inability to open windows, the danger of air conditioning circulating the Coronavirus and other infections, and particularly the withdrawal of the weekly payment of \u00a335.50 \u2013 meaning that residents were unable to purchase , toiletries, fruit and other necessities. Including mobile phone credit to stay in touch with family and representatives<\/p>\n

The situation escalated when a Syrian asylum seeker, 30 year old Adnan Olbeh, was tragically found dead in one of the hotels prompting local press coverage.<\/p>\n

Robina Qureshi explained the treatment of the Glasgow Hotel asylum seekers to the public:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u201chotel asylum seekers\u201d are very isolated. It\u2019s true they are treated as less than human, a number, one of many. Many people, men and women are suffering from severe mental health conditions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

and in a letter to the First Minister she went on to say<\/p>\n

\u201cLevels of depression are increasing. Many people are survivors of trauma and torture and suffering mental health problems because of the length of time they have been in the asylum system. People are growing increasingly desperate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

PAiH were also concerned about the welfare of hotel workers and transmission of the virus:<\/p>\n

\u201cHotel employees may also be subjected to an increased viral load in the workplace and then must go back out into the general community for a variety of essential purposes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Wednesday 17 June, so desperate was the situation that a demonstration was called to protest about the conditions of Glasgow Hotel asylum seekers in nearby George Square, outside the Glasgow City Chambers, offices of the SNP-led Glasgow City Council.\u00a0 However, that demonstration also coincided with a gathering of far-right \u201cloyalist\u201d activists who claimed to be \u201cdefending statues\u201d in the Square and opposing the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n

The far-right attacked the asylum seeker protest demonstration in scenes the First Minister described as \u201cappalling\u201d. The police largely stood by, though eventually arresting around six people believed to be far-right thugs.\u00a0 But the Scottish Police Federation issued an awful statement saying that both sides were to blame and that the police were caught in the middle between \u201cstatue attackers\u201d and \u201cstatue defenders\u201d.\u00a0 An emergency demonstration was called in George Square on Saturday 20th<\/sup>\u00a0June to protest the attack on the asylum seekers demonstration, but SNP politicians called on people to stay away [3].<\/p>\n

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SNP calls \u201cnot to politicise\u201d wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the killing and stabbing incidents SNP politicians such as Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, told the BBC:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would absolutely urge anyone not to politicise this, not to use this to divide the city.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

While Aitken obviously has genuine concerns about the far-right mobilising on Glasgow streets, this is the completely wrong approach, but one shared with the Scottish Labour Party whose spokespersons issued similar responses.<\/p>\n

Important political questions need to be asked now about the UK Government\/Home Office of Priti Patel and Mears Group policy of relocating the Glasgow asylum seekers to empty hotels during the middle of a pandemic.\u00a0 This also means questioning why the SNP at Holyrood and Glasgow City Council apparently did nothing about the \u201cpowder keg\u201d situation.<\/p>\n

Even a retired former senior police officer told Sky News in an interview on the morning after the incident that \u201cwe have got to question\u201d the putting of hundreds of asylum seekers from stressed backgrounds, \u201cpacked\u201d into such an environment.\u00a0 Robina Qureshi of PAiH highlighted in a radio interview for the BBC that there were no proper risk assessment procedures for the asylum seekers and that it was the \u201ccheap\u201d accommodation that was the motivation, not their welfare.<\/p>\n

The UK Government\u2019s privatisation of accommodation for asylum seekers through organisations like the Mears Group also needs to be challenged.\u00a0 Its predecessor in Glasgow, SERCO, also attracted massive criticism and then they moved on to a lucrative contract for the UK government\u2019s currently privatised and failing contract-tracing service for coronavirus.\u00a0 While Mears claims to be a \u201csocial\u201d landlord and outsourcing organisation, it is also a public limited company, trading shares on the stock market and making a profit for its shareholders.\u00a0 One of the directors of Mears is a former Chief Operating Officer of the massive profit-making insurance concern, Lloyds Register, and a leading light in the privatised water industry in England.\u00a0 Such people do not have the interests of asylum seekers at heart, only the pursuit of profit.\u00a0 As the official opposition in the Westminster UK Parliament, the Labour Party have an important responsibility to challenge the Tory government on the issue of private firms running public services.<\/p>\n

Rather than calling for the situation not to be \u201cpoliticised\u201d, SNP and Labour politicians should be looking to face down the far right actions by mobilising public demonstrations of support for asylum seekers, seriously challenge the Tory UK government\u2019s \u201chostile environment\u201d over immigration, and question the role of private companies in running public services for profit rather than public good.<\/p>\n

27 June 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1] Positive Action in Housing [PAiH]\u00a0http:\/\/www.paih.org\/<\/a>\u00a0\u201cis an independent, anti-racist homelessness and human rights charity (SC027577) dedicated to supporting women, children and men from refugee and migrant backgrounds to rebuild their lives. We believe in a society where everyone has the right to live safe and dignified lives, free from poverty, homelessness or inequality.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(PAiH website).<\/p>\n

In May 2020 it issued three important statements detailing the Glasgow Hotel Asylum Seekers issues:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a) Letter to the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, 11th<\/sup>May 2020:\u00a0https:\/\/www.paih.org\/letter-to-the-home-secretary-about-the-death-of-syrian-refugee-adnan-olbeh-in-glasgow\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. b) Letter to the Scottish First Minister, 13th<\/sup>May 2020\u00a0https:\/\/www.paih.org\/letter-to-the-first-minister-about-glasgows-hotel-asylum-seekers\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. c) Protest statement about press coverage of the death of a Glasgow Hotel Asylum Seeker 11th<\/sup>May 2020\u00a0https:\/\/www.paih.org\/statement-about-mr-adnan-olbeh-syrian-refugee-who-died-in-glasgow\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [2] Under the UK\u2019s complex devolution arrangements, the UK Government of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel are responsible for immigration and borders policy\/control including asylum seekers, while the Scottish Government of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the social democratic\/nationalist Scottish National Party (SNP) are responsible for policing, housing, health and other local services and has overseen dealing with the pandemic and lockdown.\u00a0 The two governments disagree about policies on a wide range of issues including immigration and asylum but have generally tried to minimise such differences during the pandemic crisis.<\/p>\n

    [3] See:\u00a0https:\/\/socialistresistance.org\/glasgow-anti-racists-defiant-against-far-right-attacks\/20250<\/a><\/p>\n

    ___________<\/p>\n

    Comment by Mike Picken<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Statement by the Glasgow No Evictions Campaign:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The No Evictions Network is extremely concerned to hear reports from MORE \u2013 Migrants Organising for Rights & Empowerment that after the events of yesterday, residents of the Park Inn hotel were left distressed, some waiting in the street for hours with little communication about their fate until late last night. Due to their financial support having been stopped by the Home Office, they were unable to purchase even a bottle of water, and are completely reliant on receiving support from others.<\/p>\n

    This meant in the hours following the incident, people who were shocked and traumatised by the events, were left without basic needs such as shoes, adequate food or medicine. Over and above practical needs, many of those being accommodated in these hotels have experienced past trauma, so it is absolutely imperative that they are given proper treatment and support for their wellbeing.<\/p>\n

    Prior to this incident, they have had their financial and social autonomy stripped from them in a series of Home Office decisions and systemically unjust hostile environment policies. This means access to healthcare, privacy and social support is extremely difficult. We believe that the Home Office, now more than ever, needs to treat people in the asylum system like human beings \u2013 beginning with reinstating and raising financial support immediately along with moving people to safe, secure housing.<\/p>\n

    We, and other NGOs are doing everything we can to help, however this should not have to fall on volunteer-led advocacy groups. Ultimately, the duty of care must lie with those responsible for their care.<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/twitter.com\/no_evictions\/status\/1276870399616323584<\/a><\/p>\n

    ___________<\/p>\n

    This article was first posted at:-<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/socialistresistance.org\/glasgow-killing-raises-major-questions-about-treatment-of-asylum-seekers\/ 20295<\/a><\/p>\n

    ______________<\/p>\n

    THE READING KILLINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    Khairi Saadallah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Readers will be aware that on the evening of Saturday June 20 there was an horrific attack by a lone knifeman on innocent folk who were enjoying the company of their friends and the sunshine in a popular town-centre park in Reading, where I happen to live. This tragic event led to the death of three people and injuries to another three. Friends, family and sympathisers expressed their shock, horror and sadness at the loss and, of course, politicians and the media – national and local – piled in.<\/p>\n

    The local paper boasted of \u201c36 pages of coverage\u201d and had a wrap-around cover, which included a quote, \u201cReading weeps. But Reading roars\u201d. The \u2018roaring\u2019 referring to a large statue near where the killings took place, which is often cited as a symbol of the town. The local paper says, \u201cThe lion was placed in memory of soldiers who had died in 1880 fighting for their country \u2026\u201d One might add that they died in a bit of a blowback from British efforts to kill Afghanis – not for the first or the last time.<\/p>\n

    Priti Patel came to Reading (could it get any worse?) and she echoed the words of Boris Johnson (yes, it could) by stating, \u201cIf further action is needed, we will not hesitate.\u201d As he said, \u201cIf there are lessons that we need to learn \u2026 we will learn those lessons and we will not hesitate to take action when necessary.\u201d Apparently, not wishing to be left out, \u201cLabour demands answers,\u201d according to\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>. Any lessons and actions are certain to be the ones that have failed in the past.<\/p>\n

    But there are hints as to possible \u201clessons\u201d from the attacker in Reading, Khairi Saadallah. He:<\/p>\n