Thirty three organisations working with refugees across the UK have today called on the Home Secretary to ensure that housing for people seeking protection is managed in a way that is fair, accountable and inclusive of communities and people’s individual needs.
Dear Home Secretary,
A safe, secure home is a necessity for people seeking refugee protection in the UK. As most people arrive here exhausted and destitute it is right, and indeed a legal obligation, that the government provides housing to people in need as a public service.
However, it is essential that the task of providing accommodation to people seeking international protection is done in a way that ensures people’s needs, dignity and wellbeing are upheld and maintained.
A recent Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry highlighted widespread failures in the provision of asylum accommodation over the last two years, calling current provision a “disgrace”.
The HASC’s report to the UK government set out more than 30 recommendations to ensure an asylum accommodation system that is fit for purpose.
We are alarmed that the Home Office has not engaged substantively with this report and the critical evidence made to it, particularly at this crucial moment when the future of asylum accommodation is being shaped through the design of new government contracts.
Before the Home Office awards any new contracts to provide asylum accommodation – contracts which will decide the future of housing for refugees for the next decade – we urge the Home Secretary to make the following commitments:
• To confirm that the new contracts will be independently reviewed within 3 years of operation to check whether they are performing well, need reform, or need to be halted.
• To provide for an independent oversight and accountability role to local authorities in terms of how this public service of housing is planned, procured, implemented and formally scrutinised in their areas.
• To ensure that local authorities and communities involved in asylum dispersal are fairly and fully financially resourced in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the dispersal system, recognising their role as key stakeholders in the provision of asylum accommodation and integration of new communities.
Signed by:
Sabir Zazai, CEO, Scottish Refugee Council
Maurice Wren, CEO, UK Refugee Council
Michael Collins, Coordinator, Right to Remain
Stephen Hale, CEO, Refugee Action
Rosalind Ereira Solidarity with Refugees
Nazek Ramadan, Director, Migrant Voice
Rita Chadha, Barking and Dagenham Migration Hub
Toni Soni, CEO, Coventry Refugee & Migrant Centre
Sunder Katwala, Director, British Future
Alice Webb, Interim Director, Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP)
Vicky Ledwidge, Centre Leader, St Augustine’s Centre, Halifax
Jon Beech, Director, Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network
Richard Chessum, Acting Chair, ASSIST, Sheffield
Alison Moore, Director, Merseyside Refugee and Asylum Seeker Pre and Post-natal support group (MRANG)
Housing 4 All, Belfast
Anne Burghgraef, Clinical Director, SOLACE Leeds
Ruth Davany, Director, Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Roger Nyantou, Director, Refugee Education and Training Advice Service
Sian Summers-Rees, Chief Officer, City of Sanctuary
Sister Margaret Walsh IJS, Manager, St Chads Sanctuary
Andrea Vukovic, Project Director, Asylum Matters
Emma Crossley, Project Manager, Meeting Point Leeds
Sonya Sceats, Acting CEO, Freedom From Torture
Sheila Arthur, Community InfoSource, Glasgow
Asylum Seeker Housing Project with Women Asylum Seeker Housing Project, Glasgow
Robina Qureshi, Positive Action in Housing, Glasgow
Friends of the drop in for refugees and asylum seekers, Sunderland
Owen Fenn, Project Manager, Govan Community Project , Glasgow
Suzanne Fletcher, Housing Stream Convenor, Tees Valley of Sanctuary
Migration and Asylum Justice Forum, Tyneside
Doncaster Conversation Club
John Grayson, South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
Women in Exile, WomenCentre
Refugee Women’s Strategy Group
