A PROVIDER of temporary and emergency accommodation seeking to offer an alternative way to house asylum seekers in Scotland has been asked to provide more details of operations at its sites from Edinburgh to Dover and how it would cope with an influx of refugees from Afghanistan.
The Housing Network said it currently provides around 1200 properties on a nightly basis to councils around the country, and said it was willing to be tested when Afghan refugees begin arriving in Glasgow.
Details emerged at a meeting between the SNP’s Westminster spokesperson on immigration, asylum and border control, Anne McLaughlin, company directors Marc Goodkind, Gary Teper and Terence Brown, Glasgow councillor Ruairi Kelly and immigration lawyer Usman Aslam, to which the Sunday National was given exclusive access.
It was not an exercise in criticising the Mears Group, who currently have the contract for refugee housing in Glasgow. Nor was there any vitriol aimed at Home Secretary Priti Patel (below). This was a genuine attempt to explore an alternative way of improving the lot of the often desperate people who seek refuge on these shores.
READ MORE: Scots-Afghan human rights campaigner condemns the West’s ‘betrayal’ of his country
Outlining what the company could offer, Teper said that accommodation, while important, was only the start: “Unless you’re providing additional services around that, you can end up with just warehousing people and that’s not optimal for anyone.
“So, we’ve been developing, over the last two years, a range of support solutions which wrap around the accommodation, so back to the core values – providing decent accommodation.
“We do not provide hotels or B&B-type accommodation. For some singles, we do provide shared accommodation, but I don’t think we’ve got a bigger than seven or eight-person house in multiple occupation (HMO) anywhere in the country, our view being that if you give somebody accommodation that they can consider a home, then you’ve got a much better chance of successful medium and long-term support.”
Teper said the Housing Network was responsive to what the local authority could afford and wanted to provide, but that it was a “great myth” that accommodation could not be found or was too expensive, and gave the company’s meeting with Edinburgh City Council as an example: “The first thing they said to us is ‘you’re never going to find us any accommodation … we’ve heard all this before’.
“We now have I think just over 200 units … that was probably one of the toughest meetings we’ve ever had or I’ve ever had in my business life.”
READ MORE: David Pratt: Kabul Airport attack was reminder other dangerous forces exist in Afghanistan
However, he said they had sourced the 200 properties in around 18 months.
“We are saying, ‘well, why are people being put up in hotels, why are they being put in B&Bs with families, why can’t they be put in suitable family accommodation?’
“That is where I think we come in. We believe we have the skill set and the experience and the networks to be able to provide that combination, and the support services.”
Goodkind said they were not saying they were the “magical solution”, but felt they could play an important part. He continued: “I think our reputation will definitely stand up to the scrutiny. I’m not making any comments on anyone that’s running any existing contracts, that’s not for us to talk about.
“I want to champion our company, what we have done, what we have achieved.
“We want to make the experience as human as possible. We want to give everyone a mobile phone, because every family can phone home, contact us if they need to make an appointment to come and see us.”
READ MORE: The winners and losers in the lottery of UK relocation from Afghanistan
He said they were now in the process of putting together proposals for some of company’s partner councils to house Afghan refugees and one of the first questions they were asked was about language.
“Language is actually quite easy to get over. Many of the Afghans are translators anyway, but you can bring in people with language skills,” Goodkind explained.
“But it’s not that, it’s all the other things – going to school, going to the doctor, who opens the bank account, who controls the finance. All those things I think are vitally important.
McLaughlin said: “Most of them will not be coming as asylum seekers, most of them are coming as refugees.
“They’re not part of the asylum dispersal, therefore they will be part of the refugee settlement and every local authority will get involved in that.”
READ MORE: Scots aid worker stays in Kabul to continue working with Unicef
Aslam said he accepted that more assurances were needed from the company after earlier promises from providers caused suffering to refugees.
“Something has to be done given the embarrassing situation we faced last year, resulting in deaths,” he said.
Several asylum seekers died in hotel accommodation last year including in the Park Inn stabbings.
Aslam continued: “Scotland has the opportunity to lead by example and become exemplary in how refugees should be received. I am hoping we can find a solution as our job has first-hand experience of what refugees face.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here