Reports brands some asylum accommodation provided by Government contractors as a "disgrace"
The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has today published a highly critical report on the state of accommodation for asylum seekers.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe report can be accessed from here in HTML or downloaded in full here in PDF format.
In its report, the Committee says that the state of some asylum accommodation provided by Government contractors was a "disgrace". The Committee said it is "shameful" that very vulnerable people have been placed in these conditions.
The Committee says the current contract system for asylum accommodation isn't working and major reforms are needed.
As noted by BBC News, accommodation is provided to asylum seekers via six regional contracts delivered by three providers: Serco G4S; Clearsprings; and Ready Homes.
BBC News says that the report found poor accommodation was the most significant problem identified in the evidence it had received, which focused largely on contracts administered by G4S and Serco.
The problems identified by the Committee include:
• Vermin – infestations of mice, rats and bedbugs were the second biggest source of complaint of people living in dispersed accommodation
• Unclean conditions – including families unable to put their children down on dirty carpet and rotten sofas
• Inadequate support for vulnerable people – for example women in the late stages of pregnancy being placed in rooms up several flights of stairs or being made to share a bedroom.
The Committee says the current contract scheme set up in 2012 (known as Commercial and Operational Managers Procuring Asylum Support Services or COMPASS) isn't working due to problems such as:
• Contractors are housing more people than they were funded for because of the contract design, growing delays in Home Office asylum processing and higher applications
• Dispersal isn't working. Asylum claimants are concentrated in a small number of the most deprived areas with so many local authorities not participating which is deeply unfair
• The inspection, compliance and complaints regimes are inadequate
• Accommodation funding is much lower than for the Syrian refugees scheme leading to a two tier system particularly for refugees once asylum claims are concluded
Yvette Cooper, the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying: "The state of accommodation for some asylum seekers and refugees in this country is a disgrace. And the current contract system just isn't working. Major reforms are needed.
"We have come across too many examples of vulnerable people in unsafe accommodation for example children living with infestations of mice, rats or bed bugs, lack of health care for pregnant women, or inadequate support for victims of rape and torture. No one should be living in conditions like that."
Cooper says that when the current contracts run out, they should be replaced with a completely new system – "handing power back to local areas to decide on asylum accommodation rather than this top down approach."
In response to the report, the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council, Maurice Wren, said: "This report sends a crystal clear message to the Government: it must stop cramming desperate people into unfit, unsafe, rat infested housing. The Committee paints a grim picture of poor conditions across the board, but it's particularly shocking that mums-to-be are being prevented from obtaining the urgent medical care and the nutritious food they need during pregnancy. There's no simply excuse for putting the lives of women and their babies at risk.
"It doesn't need to be this way. The success of the Syrian resettlement programme has demonstrated that communities across the UK are both capable of and keen to welcome refugees if local authorities are properly consulted, resourced and responsibility is evenly shared.
"It's vital the Government takes immediate action and ensures that the dignity and rights of vulnerable people who've sought refuge in the UK are upheld and that they are housed in accommodation that is safe, habitable and appropriate to their needs."