Sleepless in Glasgow

Sleepless in Glasgow…

John is a failed asylum seeker from Nigeria. He currently lives in Glasgow with a retired priest. His path to Scotland’s second city has taken him via Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire and Harmondsworth Detention Centre ‘doon south’, and these days he receives no support at all from the British Government. And yet, in a way, John can count himself amongst the luckier of failed asylum seekers. Most don’t even have a roof over their heads, and instead of seeking asylum, they spend their days seeking their next meal, and the hours of darkness sleepless in bus shelters or riding the night buses.

This situation is the creation of the 1999 Asylum and Immigration Act and subsequent legislation. The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) is not obliged to support an asylum seeker whose asylum application and appeal have failed. This means that the weekly £38.26 – 2/3 of weekly income support benefits and far below the poverty line – is withdrawn, along with the rent paid on accommodation. Save for the intervention of well-intentioned individuals such as the priest with whom John now stays, the asylum seeker is left absolutely destitute.

This was one of the situations with which I was confronted upon arrival in Glasgow as this year’s Jesuit Volunteer for the Glasgow Campaign To Welcome Refugees. Lobbying and campaigning against destitution is one ongoing raison d’être of the GCTWR. In the December issue of this newsletter you heard from fellow volunteer Ian Quigg in Manchester, who is also engaged in a project concerning destitution. In the face of such nationwide legislation, there can be no doubting the need for responses to destitution in every city in Britain where asylum seekers are found.

The GCTWR is a completely independent, politically motivated organisation. Membership is not a formal affair; anyone interested in the well being of asylum seekers can send us an email and stay in touch. It has no religious affiliations, though those active in the Campaign come from all religious backgrounds. We have the broad aim of publicly highlighting injustice in both the asylum system and in individual cases.

I myself have now been in Glasgow for five months, and my position within the Campaign has grown more familiar. There is an administrative side to my work, which involves keeping minutes of meetings and maintaining communications, so anyone who emails is likely to hear back from yours truly! Over and above this, I am involved in organising our demonstrations, alongside which comes the part I play in the ongoing process of creating a website – www.gctwr.org – containing details of our work. I also help out where I can in individual cases, either in terms of personally befriending those concerned or in moving their case on.

Nothing prepared me for the realisation that asylum seekers were being made destitute. Asylum policy is obviously much in the news and I was aware of the existence of Removal Centres such as Dungavel. Deliberate creation of destitution, however, is not something that people know so much about – and no wonder, for it is not really the sort of policy that a humane government can trumpet. Yet it happens, in all our major cities. If you are interested in the situation in Glasgow, you can visit our website or get in touch with us at glascamref@hotmail.com. As awareness of the problems faced by asylum seekers grows, perhaps somebody elected to represent us will feel driven to make changes. In the meantime let us hope that enough kind-hearted people come forward to offer a bed to the likes of John. It surely has to be more comfortable than a seat on the night bus.

Peter Cousins

Registered Charity No: 230165	Jesuit Refugee Service - UK