THE Home Office cannot be trusted with health assessments and the health of asylum seekers after an internal review showed that the Park Inn attacker made more than 70 calls for help before the Glasgow stabbing, a leading Scottish charity has said. 

A redacted version of the review details the handling of asylum seekers in the city during the first lockdown – during which many were moved into hotels.

Baddredin Abadlla Adam, 28, contacted the Home Office, Mears and Migrant Help 72 times regarding his accommodation and health in the period leading up to the attack on June 26, 2020.

Six people, including a police officer, were injured in the incident which saw the 28-year-old attacker shot dead by armed officers.

The Herald:

The review claims that in the context of a global pandemic moving people who had “not previously been assessed as vulnerable” into hotel accommodation “appears sound”.

However, the Scottish Refugee Council has claimed the review shows that vulnerability checks carried out by the Home Office and its contractors were “completely not up to par”.

Policy manager Graham O’Neill said: “The Home Office and Mears’ needs assessments were not up to scratch in relation to the people who were moved from their self-contained accommodation between March and April 2020 into these hotels.

“They should not be described as vulnerability assessments. That is a misleading use of what actually happened.”

When housing and social care provider Mears acted to move people from their self-contained accommodation at the start of the first lockdown, there was no mechanism to reassess the vulnerability of the asylum seekers.

Families, people with mobility issues, women who were heavily pregnant and the elderly were recognised as vulnerable.

READ MORE: Asylum seeker contacted Home Office and contractors 72 times before Glasgow stabbing

The Herald:

The review, which was published internally in August 2020, states: “Whilst there is evidence to support Mears’ assertion that those who were classed as vulnerable were not moved to hotels, that assessment of needs was reliant on people previously having been identified as vulnerable.”

It added that “individual needs changed during lockdown and there was no mechanism to re-evaluate their needs”.

Mr O’Neill emphasised that any vulnerability check should have included mental health checks “as he called for a separate body to be trusted with health assessments.

He added: “We can no longer trust safeguarding and mental health care to the Home Office as the lead agency.

“We need to have this resourced and led clearly by health practitioners because otherwise we are just going to have more irresponsible placement of people in inappropriate accommodation and being left there for months.”

Meanwhile, chief executive of Positive Action in Housing Robina Qureshi said that the Home Office’s contractors were “desensitised to people’s urgent needs” as shown by the 72 calls made by Adam in the run up to the Park Inn attack.

The Herald:

The review admitted that number of attempts to contact authorities “should have acted as a warning".

Ms Qureshi said: “The only recourse he, and others, had was the Home Office contracted Mears Group and Migrant Help and both are in our view desensitised to people’s urgent needs.

“Asylum seekers inside that hotel told us they were actively discouraged from speaking to outside organisations or making complaints about conditions.

She added that some individuals reported spending hours to get through to Migrant Help for a GP appointment.

“They are cut off completely from the mainstream services the rest of us accept, either because they are not allowed to access those services, or because they don't know. Within that context, it becomes clearer the extent of isolation that he and others must have been feeling.”

Mr O’Neill issued calls for an independent judicial inquiry to investigate both the events in Glasgow and the “the trauma caused to people moved into these inappropriate accommodations.”

 He compared the hotel-based accommodation to a “regime type existence” with asylum seekers having no right to work and at best £8 per week funding-wise.

Speaking on the review which found that the move into hotels had a “significant impact” on asylum seeker well-being he added: “What have they done since they received this report in August 2020? They have actually increased radically the amount of people under its care to be placed under this accommodation.”

The Home Office admitted the use of hotels as long-term accommodation is "unacceptable" and emphasised that significant changes have been made.

However, it declined to comment on health assessment concerns.

A spokesman said: "Due to the pandemic the Home Office had to use an unprecedented number of hotels for asylum seekers, including in Glasgow.

"The use of hotels is unacceptable and we are working hard to find appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers but local authorities must do all they can to help house people permanently.

"Since this horrific incident we have undertaken a number of significant changes to keep asylum seekers safe, including how we, our contractors and charities spot vulnerable individuals and provide them with wraparound support and appropriate accommodation.

"The Home Office has completed the majority of recommendations in the review which found that hotels in Glasgow were of a good standard, clean and well maintained.

"Our new plan for immigration, which is going through Parliament now, will fix the broken asylum system, enabling us to grant protection to those entitled to it and to remove those with no right to be here more quickly."