Latest News from Positive Action in Housing

On Wednesday we asked for help to find bedspaces for two destitute clients; Rui and Ndenga. A volunteer has very kindly agreed to host Rui in her home for two weeks, by which time we expect government support to be provided. Both Rui and PAiH are extremely grateful. You can read about Rui in today’s (Friday’s) Independent newspaper  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2405114.ece 

Sadly we have been unable to secure accommodation for Ndenga.  Despite running very low on money we are currently paying for him to stay in a hostel in
Glasgow. Information about Ndenga is at http://paihnews.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/urgent-appeal-on-behalf-of-destitute-asylum-seekers/ 

Unfortunately, today we have received another young woman Xei, referred from the Scottish Refugee Council, who is also pregnant and destitute. Her details are below. 

Xei is 20 and from
China. She is more than 6 months pregnant, and in the process of making a Section 4 application to the Home Office for ‘hard case’ support. This is very basic accommodation with vouchers that can be spent on food only. Xei arrived in
Glasgow in April to stay with friends. She has been asked to leave as friends are unable to help her any more. 

Xei has been without any support for more than a year after her asylum application was refused. She told us that she never got proper advice from her solicitor about her appeal rights and entitlement. While her Section 4 application is processed which are currently taking two weeks or more, she desperately needs a spare room or bedspace for this time. Xei speaks basic English, and is very worried about her situation and the baby’s future. 

Do you have a spare room or space?If you think you or someone you know has a spare room here in Glasgow and are willing to accommodate any of our clients for this interim period then please contact: Positive Action in Housing on 0141 353 2220 or e-mail david@paih.org urgently. 

Give a DonationThe Hardship Fund supports people in this position by giving small amounts of cash for food and basic essentials. In emergencies we can pay for short term accommodation. We spend upto £1000 per month supporting destitute asylum seekers. We desperately need donations as this work is not funded by any other means. 

You can make an online donation by clicking here. Or send a donation by cheque, made out to Positive Action in Housing and marked Hardship Fund on the back, to: 

Destitution Appeal
Positive Action in Housing

Glasgow G2 1PJ 

Thank you for your support. 

Positive Action in Housing and our clients are sorry that we have to continue to ask for your help in this way. The Government could end all destitution instantly if it chose to do so. We are trying our best to persuade them to do this, both through working with local communities via www.destitution.net and through lobbying parliament directly by contributing to reports such as the one released today:  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200607/jtselect/jtrights/81 

Positive Action in Housing appeals for accommodation for destitute clients in good faith. We realise that accepting someone into your home is not without risk. To minimise this risk we disclose all information we posses about the client to volunteers. We are available to help resolve any concerns. We have never had any difficulties with clients staying with volunteers in this way but ultimate cannot take responsibility for any problems that may arise. 

Thousands of people fleeing persecution in their own countries end up victims of the UK’s “degrading and inhumane” asylum system, says a committee of MPs.

In assessing the Government’s 10-year asylum policy, the Joint Committee on Human Rights concludes that no “human being should have to suffer such appalling treatment”.

The MPs also have concerns about the greater use of detention against vulnerable people such as children, pregnant women and those with serious health problems.

Evidence before the committee included examples of a dying refugee being deported to a country where he had no palliative care and pregnant women being denied access to proper care in Britain.

The asylum system, says the report, is “overly complex, poorly administered, and offers inadequate information and advice about the support to which people are entitled, in some cases denying any support whatsoever to people who are desperate and destitute”. The report concludes that the human rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society have been breached.

The committee chairman, Andrew Dismore MP, said: “Innocent children should never be detained - alternatives must be developed.The system of asylum- seeker support is a confusing mess, and the policy of enforced destitution must cease.”

Robina Qureshi, the director of Positive Action in Housing, which supports asylum-seekers in Glasgow, said that the report confirmed what she saw on the streets every day.

She said: “The treatment these people receive amounts to them being tortured in a country which they have come to because they are fleeing persecution from their own.”

She added: “The system works on the basis that all applications are bogus and as a result is ruthless in its treatment of the most vulnerable people in society and inevitably leads to the decline in their physical and mental health.

“In the end, the weak ones are sent home and the strong simply join the underclass of Britain’s underclass, where they have to work in the underground economy. Many of these people end up sleeping in phoneboxes, night buses and car parks.”

Rui Juan, refugee, 25: ‘I’m scared and homesick’

Pregnant and fleeing persecution in China, Rui Juan has applied to the Home Office for “hard case” support. For the last year she has been without any financial support or assistance because her asylum application was refused. If she doesn’t get help she will be forced to live in the streets. For the past two weeks she has been helped by volunteers from the Positive Action in Housing charity, who have been able find her accommodation, but only in the short-term. She is now more than six months pregnant. Her situation is desperate and she needs a spare room or “bed space” for a few days until her new application is processed.

Ms Rui said through an interpreter: “I am very scared and very homesick. If Positive Action in Housing had not been here to help I would have to live in the street. I don’t know how else to live here or how to deal with this problem.”

She said: “I would like help to find a flat somewhere, I don’t care where. I don’t have any money to live. If I could work I would live and pay rent but if I have no work or no food I will be very sad.”

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 30 March 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2405114.ece