| | | | | Latest update from Positive Action in Housing - July 2021 | | | | We are recruiting for a Finance Officer (21 hours) . Closing date August 9th 2021. More info here | | |  | Syrian Family Reunited!
A Syrian family was emotionally reunited after being separated for a year after they fled their home country. Abdulrahman Al Haj Ali, Safa Al Abdullah and their three children Ibrahim, 10, Mohammed, seven, and Fuad, three, fled Syria after their family home was attacked and destroyed by an airstrike.Abdulrahman and two of his sons, Mohammed and Ibrahim, became separated from their mother and youngest brother Fuad. The family ended up in the UK, making a new home in the south side of Glasgow. After a year of searching for his wife Safa and youngest child, Abdulrahman discovered they were in Germany. An application was made to bring mother and younger child from Germany to the UK, with Safa represented by Maguire Solicitors - a leading firm in asylum and immigration law. Click on the photo to watch the video. Footage shows the emotional moment Safa reunited with her two eldest children in the airport after her arrival in the UK. | | | The Aspen Card Crisis More than six weeks on, the Home Office admits that 7% of asylum seekers have still not received their debit card (Aspen). The Home Office would not give the actual figure, but we believe this translates to roughly 4,500 asylum seeking men, women and children across the U.K. still affected by the Aspen card crisis.
Complaints are coming in to our office at the rate of 25 to 30 cases per week and we expect this to continue. This is on top of the current caseload of 83 asylum-seeking families (including 16 children and babies) left without money for food. Contrary to what Home Office ministers imply, those who live in private accommodation or hotels do not receive Emergency Crisis Payments. And many people report that they have received random amounts without back payments.
To increase capacity, we have teamed up with Latta & Co Solicitors in Glasgow and Duncan Lewis in London to take up some of the most urgent cases that are not getting sorted. This means using Pre Action Protocols and Judicial Review, if necessary. To minimise unnecessary delays we are liaising directly with the Home Office, instead of going through MigrantHelp. This approach means we get a quicker response. Below are testimonies from some of those affected: | |  | | The Aspen Card Crisis Continues
6 year old Rahima* plays outside the Glasgow hotel where she and her family are currently living. The family are seeking asylum from Iraq, and arrived here a month ago. The little girl's father, Gabriel, 52, said: "I am a trained electrician, we have been here a month and they have still not given us a payment card. It is hard when the children ask for something, we can't give them snacks or juice. We asked for clothes for the children but they keep saying next week or the week after. So we wash what we have every day and wait for it to dry before going out. Truthfully, I would rather work." Positive Action in Housing has asked the Home Office to urgently issue a payment card to the family. They are supposed to receive £8.00 a week each. They are amongst many families who are left penniless because of the failed payment card switch. Read more below. | | | Farhad*, 48, from Iran: "I lost my three children two years ago when we got separated at the Turkish border. The smugglers forced me the go with them, and I promised the children I would return. But they are alone. I asked the Red Cross to help me find them. It causes me a lot of mental stress and I have been in hospital because of it. At the moment, I have no money at all. My accommodation provider did not bring me any cash. I called MigrantHelp but they told me to wait. My new card doesn't work; and I have no money for food for 21 days. I need help urgently. I am worried that charities will not be able give me food. My mental health is very bad. This is making me much worse."
Positive Action in Housing has taken up Farhad's case as a matter of urgency with the Home Office. | | | Serena, 30, from Eritrea
Serena lives with her baby daughter in a hotel. She has not received her Aspen card. "I have been in the hotel for one year with my daughter without an Aspen card. I am in stress because my daughter is eaten 3 times in a day but the gave me one times in a day. Please provide me with a payment card so we can live." We arranged for a crisis payment for Serena and asked the Home Office to send her her Aspen card.
Yassar*, 30, from Palestine Yassar is a business graduate. He shares a small flat in Glasgow with three other asylum seekers. On 5 June, Yassar tested positive for Covid-19. He was taken to hospital for almost three weeks and put on oxygen. "That time, during my stay in hospital, Mears stopped my financial support. The housing officer said that this was Home Office policy, that as long as I am in hospital, I am receiving food and shelter so I do not need money. It was heartless. I was struggling to breathe. Many bad things happened. But this was the worst. I was unable to purchase the simplest of items such as tissues or drinks. I cannot walk far. I am suffering from lung inflammation. I am on medicine and steroids. It makes my immune system very weak and vulnerable. The other three people are smokers and cook a lot inside the flat. It is also damp. I complained several times to the housing officer. When I told her about the fights, she said and did nothing. I have left hospital now but still not receive my payment card. Mears gave me £40 cash after more than three weeks but nothing since. This for me is just further evidence of the lack of humanity. After I contacted Positive Action in Housing, they sent volunteers to deliver halal meals and wrote to Mears to ask that I be moved near to the hospital as I have several appointments due to lung damage but there is no urgency about this. My doctor asked for £100 to write a medical letter to be rehoused. So I can't even provide evidence of my condition." | | | Ali*, 21, from Syria
Ali lives with his 14 year old brother in a hotel. They lost both their parents. He contacted us on 8 June because his Aspen card was not working. "I have been in this hotel around two months as I said that I have a children which is my younger brother 14 years old and I afraid from the other people they start talking with him in crime things and drugs and I don't want him to learn that from Them and the food in this hotel is too bad my brother because he is a young person he don't listen to me he don't want to eat this food he just asked me to cook for him but I can't in this hotel and I literally need to move to the private house to can help my brother, my personal problem that I have a tooth problem and I can't eat and I need a doctor to fix my Problem, please if you can help me as soon as possible" | | | *we have changed some names and images to protect identities. | |  | | Patel's Anti Refugee Bill
On Monday, the Home Office published the Nationality and Borders Bill. Its central aim is to criminalise anyone arriving in the UK to claim asylum through "irregular routes" – for instance on a dinghy or the back of a lorry. Most asylum seekers do not come to Europe, and those that do want to come here, do so because of language familiarity or for existing support networks such as family members.
With this Bill, the UK is torching its international human rights obligations under the 1951 refugee convention. We are in danger of committing crimes against humanity by turning back those in need of safety and treating them as criminals. Human beings will be judged by how they entered the UK, rather than the dangers they face from countries they fled. You can read our complete response here. | | | | | | | |
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