| March 2021 Newsletter from Positive Action in Housing | | | | Lockdown continues
As we enter almost one year in Lockdown, Positive Action in Housing continues to respond to increased demand on our frontline advice and casework services, as well as emergency support.
This week our staff and volunteers are exceptionally busy as we distribute further emergency supplies and support from our Relief Fund to 127 refugee and asylum seeker families and individuals [149 adults: (98 men 51 women) plus 43 children and babies].
We are holding outside surgeries and delivering by bike and car to those in need. We can't help every person but we are doing our very best to identify and triage those who are in greatest need. We know there is a lot of hardship though.
We want to ensure that people have access to food, travel, PPE, phone top ups and digital technology. Thank you to our staff and wonderful volunteers on the ground for staying safe and helping!
Since March 2020, we have adapted so that our staff and volunteers can continue to provide advice, information and practical support safely.
We have converted our phone systems to digital to provide a seamless service when outside the office or working from home.
We have also increased our capacity to distribute emergency support packages to the most vulnerable amongst our client groups. This includes provision of crisis grants, winter care packs, baby packs and a halal food bank.
Our skeleton team continue to do essential homelessness and anti poverty work with the most vulnerable service users from our offices - those whose first language is not English, have limited digital skills or tech and don't know their rights.
Our Homelessness and Emergency Relief Teams- led by Tim Lehuraux and supported by colleagues Sunny, Freya and Chris and sessional workers are offering appointments for outside "surgeries" to provide support to those in greatest need, and impacted directly by Covid 19.
Our Money Skills Team, led by Sraboni Bhattacharya and supported by colleagues Marina and Mary, have held Zoom energy and money saving workshops for service users from the Chinese and other communities - after guiding them through digital technology.
Our New Migrants Action Project, led by Iain Chisholm and supported by colleagues Lia, Iulia, Ioanna and Andreea are doing brilliant work to help EU migrants to complete their settlement status.
Thank you, as ever, for your support by volunteering, giving a donation or through membership.
Onwards and upwards,
Robina Qureshi
Director
NB To support our Financial Donations Appeal, see the end of this newsletter. | | Give a donation via CAF, JustGiving or PayPal Giving, or post a cheque to: Emergency Appeal, Positive Action in Housing, 98 West George St Glasgow G2 1PJ. For other ways to give, visit our donate page. | | News in Brief
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One of the many people our homelessness caseworkers is currently supporting is Maria, a medical professional who has just been denied asylum after four years.
This means that she can't sit her General Medical Council exams in May. We've helped her change lawyers. Maria is desperate to join her colleagues in the NHS and use her considerable skills in the fight against Covid 19. Add to this, Maria is forced to share accommodation with someone who is suicidal. On several occasions she has had to alert the NHS mental health team when her flatmate has been in a crisis. She asked to be moved (repeatedly) but states that Mears staff told her she should be able to handle it as she was a medical professional. Maria replied that medics don't normally live with their patients!
Maria is one of many thousands of people in Glasgow and across the U.K. who are not allowed by law to contribute to our society.
Submission to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI)
One of the things many of our service users find hard is the lack of agency over their own life. It can take many years before the Home Office makes a considered decision about their asylum situation.
Why are asylum seekers so disenfranchised work? Why can't they work, pay taxes, save and build some security for themselves and us in an increasingly insecure world?
We made this point when we recently submitted evidence to the ICIBI regarding the use of hotels and barracks as contingency asylum accommodation during Covid 19. We also reported several cases where duty of care and assessment of risk and vulnerability was simply non existent.
Glasgow has the biggest asylum population in the UK with 5,000 asylum seekers accommodated by the Mears Group. Between January 2020 and February 2021, Positive Action in Housing provided emergency crisis support to 626 asylum seekers and their dependents who had no money or were struggling to make ends meet.
The report recommends that asylum seekers should be allowed to work and hold savings accounts and lead independent lives whatever the outcome of their asylum claim, and have the means to find housing independently of asylum contracts.
Despite lockdown, we are pressing ahead with the enabling EU Nationals to access the EU settlement scheme and universal credit. Our New Migrants Action Team, led by Iain, and supported by colleagues Lia, Ioana, Iulia and Andreea, is working hard on two vital pieces of work. Firstly, promoting access to the EU Settlement Scheme to vulnerable EU nationals living in Glasgow, to ensure people apply before it closes at the end of June 2021. If people don't make an application in time, they risk losing their right to live in the UK and access to public funds and services. In lockdown, this is especially difficult as people struggle to find work and survive on very limited incomes. Our other priority is helping EU nationals make Universal Credit applications, at a time when much of the work our service users depend on has dried up in lockdown. With DWP affected by lockdown too, online applications by our excluded and vulnerable service users are sometimes taking months to resolve, as they struggle with confirming their identity and circumstances. Making this worse for many people who came to live in the UK since the first lockdown is the DWP's failure to give new NI numbers to EU nationals, as many employers will not offer work to people without one. Remember, if you or someone you know needs help, you can contact us by phone on 01413532220, email newmigrants@positiveactionh.org or private message us on Facebook and we'll arrange a video or phone appointment.
Refugee/Asylum/Migrant Rights & Diversity Training
Here's our Spring timetable for live, online, open course training to March 2021. We are offering all our courses online using Zoom. For in-house training please drop a line to Iain Chisholm at training@positiveactionh.org.
Call to Action
To see our latest Call To Action, go here . You will find essential resources including how to support our work, sign up or volunteer. Here also is a timeline of the deadly accommodation crisis going on in Glasgow since March 2020, at the height of the Lockdown.
Resources for Asylum Seekers and NRPF
We have put together Essential Resources for Asylum-seekers and those with No Recourse To Public Funds here
Employers: Encourage your employees to check if they need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Your employees risk not being able to continue living or working in the UK if they do not apply to the scheme. Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (settled and pre-settled status)
Home Office fails to respect High Court ruling
The Home Office is facing a legal challenge over asylum seeker payments during Covid. Asylum seekers in emergency accommodation - particularly hotels - are struggling to meet their basic needs as the U.K. government fails to pay an agreed increase in support. Read our comment.
Britain Closes Door on Unaccompanied Child Refugees
Unaccompanied child refugees will no longer be given sanctuary in the UK, the immigration minister has said – sparking claims that Britain has "turned its back" on vulnerable youngsters in need of protection. The Dubs Amendment, passed in May 2016 by David Cameron's government in the wake of an increase in refugees arriving in Europe during the Syrian war, required ministers to relocate and support asylum-seeking children from the continent. But Chris Philp, the immigration minister, said that although the Home Office took the "responsibility for the welfare of children very seriously", there would no longer be a legal route to Britain for these minors. Campaigners warned that the decision meant hundreds of vulnerable children would instead turn to people smuggling gangs to assist them with travelling to Britain, placing them at greater risk of trafficking. Read more | | | Give a donation via CAF, JustGiving or PayPal Giving, or post a cheque to: Emergency Appeal, Positive Action in Housing, 98 West George St Glasgow G2 1PJ. For other ways to give, visit our donate page. | | | Donate your birthday via Facebook and encourage family or friends to fundraise. Go to the home page of your Facebook account (on mobile app or desktop). On the left hand side column, you should see the 'fundraiser' option under "Create" at the bottom. Click on "fundraiser" and Facebook will walk you through. For more info, visit here. | | | Shop using AmazonSmile, and Amazon will have to donate to Positive Action in Housing, at no cost to you. | | | Click here to send an e-card for any occasion - save paper and help a worthy cause. | | Companies can request an invoice for tax/auditing purposes, email accounts@positiveactionh.org. (To add 25% gift aid
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Account: 00447398 | | | The LifeLine Service provides a breathing space so that people can decide their options and create a forward plan with their lawyer and caseworker. This approach has produced life transforming outcomes, putting autonomy back into peoples' lives.
In 2019/20, Positive Action in Housing assisted 1,440 refugees & asylum seekers from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine and Yemen with advice, legal representation, shelter, and crisis funds at crucial stages in their settlement. We provided 43K nights of shelter (www.roomforrefugees.com) and distributed almost £60K from our Emergency Relief Fund – providing a genuine lifeline.
We work to resolve a crisis and rebuild lives. See our latest impact report | | | Throughout Winter, Positive Action in Housing provides essential crisis support to homeless or destitute refugee and asylum seeking families and unaccompanied child refugees who have fled war and persecution, leaving behind loved ones and everything they know. The charity supports people from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and many other refugee-producing countries. You can read stories about some of the people we have helped in our annual impact report here. We focus resources on those at risk of exploitation: unaccompanied children, families, pregnant woman, the elderly and sick, and lone individuals living in poverty and people with health problems/disabilities. As well as arranging shelter, the Charity helps vulnerable refugees with travel to medical and legal appointments, food vouchers and hygiene packs. We also provide crisis grants to ensure people do not go hungry, cold, or destitute. | | | | Positive Action in Housing
Working together to rebuild lives
Scottish Registered Charity SC027577
www.positiveactionh.org
www.roomforrefugees.com | | | | |
