A BBC Scotland news website story has been shortlisted for a leading European journalism award, it was announced.
‘Seeking asylum from the streets’ revealed that asylum seekers were left homeless in Scotland after their claims were rejected by the Home Office.
The investigation by reporter Stephen Stewart found hundreds of asylum seekers on Glasgow streets.
The European Union Journalist Award is open to reporters from the EU’s 27 member states.
It is designed to honour journalists who contribute to a “better public understanding of the benefits of diversity and the fight against discrimination in employment on the grounds of age, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability, religion or belief”.
The overall winners will be honoured by Commissioner Vladimir Spidla at an awards ceremony in Lisbon.
Seeking asylum from the streets
Stephen Stewart
Glasgow and west of Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website
Reported: Thursday, 21 June 2007, 10:49 GMT 11:49 UK
The would-be citizens must steal sleep. They move from bus shelters, underpasses and even telephone boxes, trying desperately to get some rest before the streets fill with commuters.
Clutching plastic bags with all their worldly possessions, these people are part of a growing, yet invisible, army which lives in constant fear of violence.
The men and women have fled from some of the world’s most notorious trouble-spots only to find themselves languishing on Scotland’s streets.
A BBC investigation has revealed that growing numbers of asylum seekers have been left homeless after their claims were rejected by the Home Office.
Between April 2006 and February this year, about 1,000 destitute asylum seekers and refugees, including hundreds of children, have been given small crisis grants to provide food and other basics in Scotland.
The Home Office gives Section Four support, involving self-catering accommodation and vouchers for food and toiletries, to asylum seekers facing destitution.
A new report revealed that the number of people seeking this safety net across the UK also rose from 1,510 to almost 1,900 in the first quarter of this year alone.
The hidden and fluid nature of destitution and homelessness serves to obscure the problem, but one of the country’s leading refugee bodies described it as “widespread” and said it had “a devastating impact on already vulnerable individuals”.
In one month last year, the Scottish Refugee Council identified more than 150 asylum seekers and refugees who were living on the streets of Glasgow.
With a remarkable Iranian accent laced with the occasional Glaswegian turn of phrase, Parviz Fatahi describes the chaos of his life on the streets, which began after he arrived in Glasgow in 2001.
His sallow, thin face bears the literal scars of his time moving from his makeshift home in Victoria Park to benches and doorways across the city.
On one night, he was racially abused and set upon by a gang of men before being slashed across the side of his face and upper lip.
He said: “I am nothing here. Living on the streets was very difficult for me. I had to leave Iran because the authorities were looking for me.
“I had a large family there with my parents and three brothers and three sisters, but when I arrived in Scotland I had no friends, no relations and no money.
“I had a house and was trying to go to college but then I got a letter telling me I had to leave and that was it. I was locked out and had nowhere to go.
“I went to friends’ homes and even tried to get money to get to England to visit some people I knew.
“I ended up sleeping rough. It was a nightmare and I would just cry about the state I was left in.
“I was always moving from place to place: train stations, derelict buildings and parks. You could never really rest.”
Parviz was lured to a Glasgow skyline dotted with cranes, suggesting a brave new world of regeneration and a new life.
It was a place where the streets are packed with shoppers, alluding to an economic and social stability so lacking in his homeland.
He knew this was the place he wanted to settle despite the ubiquitous and seemingly incessant drizzle.
But he arrived in 2001, not long after the terror attacks of 9/11. The destruction of the twin towers and its aftermath made it even more difficult for a man of Middle Eastern appearance on the streets.
Sleeping rough
He said: “Scotland is a beautiful place with great people. But when I was on the streets I would think, why is it that dogs are treated better than me?
“There are not many Iranians here and that means you stand out, especially when you are sleeping rough.
“I have been attacked far more times than I can remember.”
Saleem, 30, is another asylum seeker who ended up homeless.
From a relatively middle class background in his native country, he was unprepared for the eventual rough and tumble lifestyle on Glasgow’s streets.
One night six years ago, Saddam Hussein’s military and plain clothes police careered through the door of his family home just outside Kirkuk.
He was classified as an enemy of the Iraqi regime and fled from house to house before embarking on a hair-raising journey into Europe.
At one point, he was blindfolded by people traffickers and had a gun held to his head as they meandered from Syria to Turkey.
Lowest point
He made it to Dover and stayed for a time with acquaintances in Birmingham before deciding he wanted Glasgow to be his new home.
“When I got here I knew it wouldn’t be easy but it was so hard to make ends meet,” he said.
His accommodation and benefit were stopped and he was refused access to hostels, homeless units and benefits.
He said: “I wanted to come here to work. My family had a shop at home and I wanted to do something like that here.
“But I was put out on the streets and left to fend for myself. My lowest point was when I was attacked for no reason.
“About eight men came at me and I was left for dead. I just couldn’t believe this had happened to me.”
But there is an increasing, albeit belated, awareness of Saleem, Parviz and the many others like them across the country.
A vociferous housing charity has organised a sleepout event to raise awareness of the issue. Members of the public, destitute asylum seekers, faith leaders, politicians and celebrities will take part.
Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing said: “These people are denied all state support, thrown out of their housing and are not allowed to work.
“They have no money for food, shelter and the everyday things we take for granted. This misery is a direct consequence of government policy.
“Destitution is being used to drive people out of the country but many thousands simply cannot leave and are now homeless and hungry.”
Earlier this year, the Scottish Refugee Council also claimed the UK Government was using destitution as a means of forcing refused asylum seekers out of the country.
Sally Daghlian, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said: “Destitution is not a policy failure by the Home Office, it is a policy outcome.
‘Morally reprehensible’
“The deliberate use of destitution as a tool to enforce immigration control is both inhumane and ineffective.
“The denial of any means of support for refused asylum seekers as a matter of government policy is morally reprehensible. It’s time to end this scandal.”
A Border and Immigration Agency spokeswoman said claims that destitution was an instrument of policy were unfair.
She said: “There is no need for asylum seekers to be destitute. Asylum seekers are supported by the Home Office from the time they arrive in the UK until the outcome of their claim is determined.
“The only people not in receipt of support are those with no right to be in the UK and who choose not to leave.
“It is not right to ask the UK taxpayer to fund, potentially indefinitely, those who choose to remain when it is open to them to return to a home country that has been found safe for them to live in.”
The Border and Immigration Agency provides support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to asylum seekers who would be destitute while their claims and appeals are being considered.
The support provided can be accommodation and financial support or subsistence-only support if the asylum seeker is living with friends or relatives.
Life has become more settled for Parviz and Saleem, they are looking forward to a new start and both of them now have a modest place to call home.
Saleem describes his new one-bedroom flat in a multi-storey flat in a tough estate in the south side of the city.
His tired, stubbled face breaks into a broad grin as he explains that it has no furniture, no decent heating and patches of dampness streaking the walls.
“But,” he says, “at least it is my home.”
