POLITICIANS and charities have called for a review of the Home Office accommodation contract for refugees and asylum seekers after allegations of dangerous housing and claims that staff at the company paid to house them verbally abused tenants.
Stewart McDonald MP, the SNP immigration spokesman at Westminster, said allegations of racism and dehumanising treatment were evidence of a “deep seated culture of disregard and recklessness” towards refugees and government monitoring of the contract had failed.
Meanwhile the Scottish Refugee Council called for an independent investigation into claims of substandard housing and dehumanising treatment of refugees by Orchard and Shipman (O&S), the private firm sub-contracted to deliver services on behalf of the Home Office, in a deal claimed to be worth £6m a year.
The SRC and the charity Positive Action in Housing both claimed asylum seekers were sometimes in accommodation without either hot water or electricity.
The calls for a review came after a newspaper claimed O&S staff shouted at asylum seekers and one accused them of smelling like animals and being dirty. There were also claims that a female resident had fallen through an unsafe floor and injured her leg.
Multinational services company Serco manages the Home Office Compass accommodation contract but sub-contracts provision to Orchard and Shipman.
A Serco spokesman said the company complied with all the provisions of its contract with the Government.
He said: "Orchard & Shipman staff are expected to be courteous and respectful at all times. If any resident is unhappy with the behaviour of staff there is a complaints procedure. All complaints are fully investigated and appropriate action taken if required.”
However Mr McDonald said the allegations were "truly appalling if accurate".
He added: “These contracts need thoroughly investigated and reviewed, and there is a strong case that we should be looking instead to return these contracts to democratic control and accountability through local authorities."
The Scottish Refugee Council published a report 18 months ago drawing attention to concerns about both the quality of accommodation and treatment of asylum seekers under the contract.
Problems highlighted then included housing with electrical faults, lacking hot water, infestations, or accommodation that was not wind and water tight,. The report had also found that people in the asylum process were not treated with respect by O&S staff.
SRC Policy Manager Graham O'Neill said: "We continue to have concerns about the quality of accommodation provided and the way asylum seekers are being treated.
“These are very serious allegations. The Home Office should commission an independent investigation and if the allegations, especially in respect of those made by the ex- and current employees of Orchard and Shipman are upheld, the Home Office should consider removing the contract from the companies responsible."
Serco's spokesman added: “Following publication of the SRC report a property standard department was introduced to check delivery against the standards set down by the Home Office. Serco also recruited two property compliance officers to increase our inspection of properties.”
He said any incidences of cockroaches and other infestations were dealt with within 24 hours ass were heating or hot water problems, with a full repair within seven days.
He added: "All property is cleaned prior to residents moving in. Every property is also inspected weekly and both Serco and the Home Office conduct random inspections covering at least 20 per cent of all property every month.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need it and providing safe and secure accommodation while applications are considered.
“We take every effort to inspect all asylum accommodation on a regular basis to ensure that it meets the required standard and asylum seekers are treated with respect.
“We will investigate any complaint we receive that a contractor is falling short of these standards. Where there is evidence that this is the case, we work with providers to ensure issues are quickly addressed and when they are not we can and do impose sanctions.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel