Why we’re fighting for justice, accountability, and change.

 

We are refugees and people seeking asylum in Glasgow — and we want everyone affected by the inhumane conditions imposed upon us by the Home Office to receive justice. People who are here in pursuit of sanctuary have died, been physically injured, and suffered long-term psychological damage as a result of our treatment in the UK. With dire urgency, we want to prevent any further tragedies from occurring as a result of our woefully inadequate living conditions. We want justice and to be treated with human decency. 

In immense grief for all affected by the hostile environment and more specifically the provision of asylum support and accommodation during Covid-19, we founded this group to call out the circumstances which led to this cruel treatment and how we might prevent any further tragedies.

Background

There is a direct correlation between our physical and psychological health and the Hostile Environment policies that deliberately put people seeking asylum in adverse and inhumane conditions to make the UK as difficult to survive as possible.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, people seeking asylum in the UK were provided temporary residences and given a mere £37.50 per week to live on. During the first wave of the pandemic, hundreds of us were evicted from our homes without vulnerability assessments and moved into crowded hotel rooms under detention-like conditions. The organisation responsible was Mears Group — a private subcontractor of the Home Office responsible for refugee accommodations. These pressured evictions moved us in the middle of the pandemic from safer, socially distanced residences to overcrowded hotels with a higher chance of contracting and spreading Covid-19. Amongst us were pregnant women, survivors of human trafficking, survivors of torture, and all of us had fled for our lives and reached the UK hoping for a safe welcome. 

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In these quarters, the Home Office suspended our £37.50 weekly stipend, as food was portioned to us in the lodgings. Without these meager funds to choose our own food or buy essentials and lacking the legal right to work, we are penniless. Already traumatised from having to flee our home countries, we now face extreme poverty and sharing overcrowded facilities all whilst under the stress of lockdown and the pandemic. Many in our community have descended into mental health crises. We are being treated like criminals and living like prisoners.

Despite the evidence of harm, these living conditions have been normalised across the UK. People are being housed in military barracks, hotels, and other forms of institutional accommodations across the UK. Permanent detention centres for refugee men, women and children are planned. 

Instead of compassion and basic regard for our wellbeing as human beings, we have been made isolated, helpless and undignified. We tried repeatedly to raise our concerns with the Mears Group and authorities but were ignored. In fact, we were told that we were fine. On 17 June 2020, we went to George Square in Glasgow to peacefully protest our living conditions and plead for humane treatment. Instead, we were met with hatred and physically attacked. 

Less than ten days later we experienced a tragedy resulting in a death and multiple injuries. Had the appropriate mental health resources and humane treatment been given to us, we believe this horror would never have occurred.

Immediately following this senseless violence, we founded Refugees for Justice and launched our manifesto.

We demand justice, accountability, and change.

  • Justice.

    We want all our fellow people seeking asylum and refugees whose rights have been violated to receive justice, to be cared for and compensated.

  • Accountability.

    We want duty bearers on all levels who have failed to protect our safety, welfare, dignity, and well-being to be held into account.

  • Change.

    We want lessons to be learned, and systems to change in order to prevent such gross violations in the future.