Following their warning last month that people fleeing persecution are being housed in substandard accommodation in Scotland, The Scottish Refugee Council is publishing the full report on the issue, including detailed case studies. The report highlights widespread problems with the quality of accommodation provided to people seeking asylum in Scotland, currently managed by services giant Serco and housing manager Orchard and Shipman. The report includes evidence of twelve months' worth of complaints about accommodation raised by asylum seekers in Glasgow, including:



     a lack of adequate heating or hot water



     filthy or infested properties



     no locks on doors



     families having to share accommodation with strangers



     a lack of respect shown by housing provider staff towards asylum seekers

Scottish Refugee Council Acting Chief Executive Gary Christie said:  “People seeking asylum are often destitute and not allowed to work to support themselves and are forced to rely on the UK Government to put a roof over their head. The breadth and severity of the examples of accommodation problems detailed in our research are shocking. We are sure that they mirror wider, endemic problems with asylum accommodation across the UK as a whole.  As it has been two and a half years since Serco acquired the government contract to provide accommodation services, the problems that we have found are clearly not just transitional."



Read more including the full report here