From Immigration Controls to Welfare Controls by Steve Cohen & Beth Humphries & Ed Mynott

Author:Steve Cohen & Beth Humphries & Ed Mynott
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136401848
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

In autumn 2000, Manchester City Council provided evidence of the state of private sector accommodation to which NASS had dispersed asylum seekers. It investigated claims of private landlords attempting to classify unrelated single adults as ‘families’ to flout rules governing multi-occupancy and cram more people into houses; buying up low-value property in the belief that through accommodating asylum seekers they would recoup the outlay within a short period; private providers proposing to double and even treble the number of people housed in hostel-type accommodation; and vulnerable people left without support or information on local community and health services (Manchester Evening News 22 September 2000). Of 42 properties subsequently inspected, 14 were found to be unfit for human habitation and a further 20 were in a state of serious disrepair (DeSouza 2000).

In theory, the Home Office had planned to send people to ‘cluster zones’ which were ‘multi-ethnic’ (thus supposedly reducing the likelihood of racist attack) and could provide services for particular nationalities and languages. In practice, dispersal has been to the poorest areas with high levels of empty housing stock. In its cynical disregard for the well-being of asylum seekers, the Home Office has commissioned accommodation from private landlords at rock-bottom prices. The government has refused to disclose precisely how much NASS is paying each company, because the information is commercially sensitive. The Home Office has also driven down the price it is prepared to pay to the regional consortia of local authorities, which are organising the reception of dispersed asylum seekers. Indeed the South West Consortium reported an admission by Barbara Roche that: ‘Price is the main driver in arranging accommodation for asylum seekers’ (South West Consortium for Asylum Seekers 2000).

Manchester City Councillors, involved in the North West Consortium reported that after months of talks about signing a contract with NASS: ‘When we sat down to finalise it they introduced three new requirements that were all aimed at driving down costs in a way that we thought was unjustified’ (Manchester Evening News 22 September 2000). After eventually signing the contract, one Council officer concluded: ‘I have never come across an agency which seems so intent on badly treating asylum seekers’ (DeSouza 2000).

In September 2000, Liverpool City Council withdrew from the North West consortium after NASS sent 1000 asylum seekers to private landlords in Liverpool, while refusing to pay costs of £170 000 which the Council claimed it had already incurred accommodating dispersed asylum seekers (Daily Telegraph 21 September 2000). In April 2000 NASS had signed a contract with Landmark Liverpool to house more than 600 asylum seekers in two 15-storey blocks abandoned by Liverpool City Council as unfit for their own tenants. Another company, Clearsprings, abandoned nearly 100 asylum seekers from a dozen nationalities in Nelson, Lancashire, without telling the health authority or the local council of their presence (Observer 28 May 2000).

In their report into the situation in Scotland, Save the Children and the Scottish Refugee Council found racism and appalling living conditions:

Children and young people dispersed to Scotland

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