{"id":831,"date":"2017-10-27T18:38:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T18:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeerightscampaign.org\/?p=831"},"modified":"2017-10-27T18:38:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T18:38:27","slug":"theguardian-uk-asylum-seekers-living-in-squalid-unsafe-slum-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeerightscampaign.org\/?p=831","title":{"rendered":"[theguardian] UK asylum seekers living in ‘squalid, unsafe slum conditions’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charities issue urgent call for reform of housing arrangements as \u00a3600m government contract goes to tender.<\/p>\n

\"front<\/a><\/p>\n

Asylum seekers arriving in the UK are forced to live in \u201csqualid, unsafe, slum housing conditions\u201d and the public is largely unaware of the conditions into which \u201ctraumatised people are routinely dumped\u201d, charities have said.<\/p>\n

The \u00a3600m government contract to provide shelter for those seeking sanctuary in the UK goes up for tender next month as calls mount for for urgent reforms.<\/p>\n

Testimonies from asylum seekers and frontline workers detail accommodation that is infested with vermin, insecure, damp and dirty. One woman in Greater Manchester described how she was forced to stay in the same house even after her newborn baby was covered with bites from bed bugs.<\/p>\n

Another asylum seeker in Greater Manchester told of a sink pedestal that crashed though the ceiling into the area where she was living with her three children. Another in Merseyside shared images of her bedroom after the ceiling had collapsed for the second time in six months.<\/p>\n

Charities also told the Guardian that women who had been trafficked had been put in housing with internal and external doors that did not lock securely. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about people who have potentially been raped, sexually assaulted, tortured, not being able to lock their front door,\u201d said Christina Bodenes from MRANG, a Merseyside charity that provides support to women their children seeking asylum. \u201cIt\u2019s just a completely unacceptable situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responsibility for housing people seeking asylum in the UK was taken away from local authorities in 2012 and given to the companies\u00a0Serco<\/a>, G4S and Clearsprings, through contracts known as Compass.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of asylum seekers are housed by G4S and Serco in the poorest parts of the country where housing is comparatively cheap.\u00a0G4S<\/a>\u00a0holds Compass contracts for the north-east, Yorkshire and the Humber, the Midlands and the east of England, where 45% of the UK\u2019s asylum seekers live.<\/p>\n