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The Government’s intention to evict thousands of Afghan people – here seeking safety – from their current residence in hotels across the UK is the latest demonstration of its absolute inability to do anything other than spew out draconian ‘immigration policies’, all deliberately designed to degrade and terrorise displaced people from around the world.
Further, the powers that be bank on us losing our memories and our continuities with our his- her- and their- stories: we haven’t and we won’t. This latest use of eviction to threaten displaced people is far from new. A few months before 9/11 RAPAR formed through human connection between young Afghan men who began to be dumped in Salford Tower Blocks, local Salford practitioners in housing, health, education and personal safety, and academics from the Universities of Manchester and Salford. You can read about our history here. Before very long, those Afghan people in the tower blocks began to be joined by Iraqis. Then, in October 2002, people who were being failed by the asylum system, including Afghan and Iraqi people, began receiving eviction notices from their local authorities – pre-privatisation local councils had responsibility for housing people seeking asylum. The eviction notices told the refugees that they must leave their accommodation and arrange to return to their homelands. These letters were sent out just months before Blair’s Government joined the USA’s ‘shock and awe’ attack on Baghdad that marked the beginning of that illegal war. In March 2003, as the bombing began, the glossy Guardian Saturday supplement reported on RAPAR’s exposure of the then Labour Government directive to evict Iraqi people and return them to what they knew would become a carpet-bomb site. It did not stop the evictions of course. Media alone stops nothing. Only organised and collective direct action with unambiguous purpose can stop such abuses and make change. Alongside their ancestors, the overwhelming number of refugee people living in UK hotels today, whether from Afghanistan, Iraq or anywhere else, have been on the receiving end of what amounts to obscene and racist British foreign policy for centuries, never mind decades. The way forward must be to join forces, unequivocally, with the people in the UK who have status (unrestricted leave to remain) and who are organising resistance to what is an increasingly totalitarian and protofascist rule of law on this degenerating island. Only today (2nd of June), there are reports of the very aggressive use of bailiffs towards residents in council tax arrears, precipitating the halting of Manchester City Council’s Executive meeting four times yesterday, by protestors from Acorn Union. They are our people, alongside every climate justice protestor, feminist activist, and striking worker who has stood up and stood out in defence of their rights and those of the wider public. It’s time to join the dots…
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 Manjeet Kaur paints part of the mural that represents her experience: ‘The wheelchair is chained… I feel restricted by the UK Border Agency, I am not free to do anything.’ (Photograph: Andrew Bolton.) A new blog post by Dr Rebecca Yeo on Migration Mobilities Bristol features RAPAR's former Chair, Manjeet Kaur.
Dr Yeo's blog - Disablement and resistance in the British immigration system - explores the intersections between migration policy and disability, argues that '[r]estricted access to services and support is a central tool of immigration policy' and asserts a need for a social model of immigration. The blog begins: The distinction between deserving and undeserving individuals has always been core to immigration policy in the UK. However, the hostility and restrictions directed at those framed as ‘undeserving’ has steadily increased. The recently introduced Illegal Migration Bill takes these restrictions to a new level to include detaining and preventing new arrivals from even claiming asylum. The need to build effective opposition has never been more urgent. With this goal, it is important to consider the inequities of the current system, possible alternative approaches to resistance and the barriers that must be addressed. Manjeet is quoted in the piece: Lived experience The social model of disability was developed by Disabled people rather than charitable organisations. However, when people are struggling for immediate survival, there is little capacity to lead resistance. As activist Manjeet Kaur explained to me just months before she died, in the face of immediate struggles as a Disabled asylum seeker, ‘I don’t have the energy… I myself am in a floating boat, I can anytime fall down.’ The capacity for solidarity from the wider Disabled people’s movement is reduced by lack of information and individual struggles in the context of an ever more punitive welfare state. The mantra of the Disabled people’s movement ‘nothing about us, without us’ is as valid as ever, however, the solidarity of allies has never been so important. Read the full blog here. Dr Rhetta Moran, RAPAR Founder and member, and Dr Grainne McMahon, Research Lead and member, have recently published an article in Bristol University Press's Policy Press Journal of Poverty and Social Justice setting out key learning from RAPAR and the Babagar family's months-long campaign to expose inhuman conditions in global corporation Serco-run 'contingency hotels' utilised by the UK's Home Office to house people seeking asylum in the UK, and the State's egregious dereliction of statutory duty towards people seeking asylum.
The piece, published in May 2023 is entitled: Where does the buck stop? UK Home Office and other statutory body responses to allegations of human rights violations in two Serco-run hotels housing people seeking asylum (link to online version) and begins with the abstract: RAPAR applies our participatory action research methods to amplify the living experience of families seeking asylum in the UK who are in ‘contingency accommodation’, aka ‘hotels’, and claiming human rights abuses on these sites. From all over the world, these people are without status in the UK and are therefore without recourse to the public funds that are, theoretically, available to everyone living in the UK with status. Their complete legal dependence on the Home Office and its subcontractors to ‘look after’ them and deal with any complaints leads to the question: why would anyone choose to challenge any organisation about human rights violations when that same organisation exercises such profound control over their day to day living reality? The data comprises contemporaneously collected evidence from individual correspondence, questionnaires, semi-structured conversations and case studies with hotel residents. Our preliminary analysis demonstrates considerable failures of statutory bodies in implementing their statutory duties. No evidence of meaningful investigation by any implicated statutory authority, or their privatised sub-contractors, into the human rights violation allegations asserted by hotel residents has been produced. The Local Authorities and the NHS insist that the Home Office is responsible for hotel residents within their boundaries. In turn, the Home Office, including Greater Manchester Police and sub-contractors Serco and Migrant Help, have failed to address the allegations in any transparent way. We call for immediate action that enables hotel residents to safely protect themselves and stimulates inclusive solution-making, with them, to end these human rights violations. (Article here.) After publication of the article, Policy Press invited the authors to contribute a blog to the international online publication Transforming Society. The blog post entitled 'It’s called scapegoating and it’s as old as divide and rule' sets out further understanding of how the UK's hostile environment's relentless spewing out of intrinsically racist policies allows for its longstanding scapegoating of people seeking refuge to continue and to thrive. The blog begins: The UK government is actively compounding the human suffering that intrinsically racist immigration laws inflict on people seeking asylum. In fact, our participatory action research over the last 15 months about what is happening to the displaced people who have been placed in ‘contingency hotels’ simply reinforces our certainty that, from the government’s perspective, the more demonising and suffering inflicted on people seeking refuge here, the more the public hears about that suffering, and the more that government’s contractual cronies, such as Migrant Help, get away with not only doing nothing to stop it but actually heaping injury on top, the better. It is essential, in fact, that the demonising – and coverage of it – continues. (Blog here.) See more about the campaign here.  Shay Babagar outside Stockport social services offices at Stopford House (Image: Sean Hansford, via MEN) See below for the beginning of the latest Manchester Evening News (MEN) report about the Babagar's family’s hotel conditions and their forthcoming criminal defence case. Just this week (w/c 15th of May), the family have been informed by Serco that on next Monday, the 22nd of May, they will be moved out of the Rochdale Hotel that features in the MEN story and into dispersed accommodation. This new accommodation needs to be within striking distance of their child’s school. Since last September, this school has been the one constant security in this young person’s life. At this point, the continuity of the child's education is extremely important for their mental health and for the wellbeing of the family as a whole.
Homeless family who moved hotels after alleged assault say new accommodation has 'unbearable smell' as insects filmed crawling around beds (Manchester Evening News) (published on 16th of May): An asylum seeker who went on hunger strike after allegations that he was assaulted at a Stockport hotel where his family was housed has been moved. However, arriving at the new accommodation in Rochdale on Friday (May 5), Shay Babagar, his wife and daughter claimed to have found insects crawling around their bed. They are allegations which are denied by Serco, who managed the hotel. Video footage taken by the family appears to show two bugs on the bed while Shay's wife - who wishes not to be named - speaks of seeing mosquitoes. Serco, which runs both hotels, claims that the family has not reported finding insects on the bed to staff on site or through independent complaints routes. The company, which runs asylum accommodation across the North West, denied the allegation claiming staff checked the room when it was approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. The team said no evidence of insects was identified. Read the rest of the MEN piece here, and see RAPAR's press release about latest developments here.  Front cover of Amazon UK's summer magazine. “The deepening conditions of poverty in the UK are a human rights violation.” - Amnesty UK champions GRIPP’s message in their summer members magazine.
GRIPP takes the cover story of the Amnesty UK members magazine, to share our work and experiences as activists from across the UK demanding change. Through interviews with Rahwa (from RAPAR), Patricia and Tracey, the article focuses on our work of researching, writing and presenting evidence to the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in March 2023. GRIPP’s report revealed “how the UK government has created a system that keeps communities poor, ill, divided and isolated – and then blames them for the conditions they are living in.” As one of the partners of GRIPP, Amnesty UK wanted to champion our work to its audience – challenging members to consider Human Rights violations at home and how Povertyism is systemic issue within the UK. You can read the PDF of the full article from the Amnesty Magazine here. (From gripp.org.uk) On 12th April, the Home Office subcontractor Migrant Help finally offered the family emergency accommodation in a flat in Liverpool on the same day that the MEN carried this report.
The family’s acceptance of this offer was witnessed by both Stockport Social Services staff and RAPAR members. A few hours later though, the Home Office subcontractor arranged for the family to be taken instead to a Manchester City Centre hotel location. Believing that they were being returned to a Serco run contingency hotel where they would, once again, be subject to 24/7 surveillance by Serco, being unable to control who came into their living space at any time, or what or when they ate, the family refused to register at the hotel and, once again, a Stockport resident stepped in to shelter them. It took another a week to get to the bottom of this miscommunication between different parts of the Home Office sub-contractor system that had led to this last-minute change of offer and its subsequent rejection by the family. In the meantime, Migrant Voice’s report into hotels secured national coverage further confirming what RAPAR has been reporting since the summer of 2022 and what Refugee Action had also found in their report published last month. Then last Friday, when the family were finally able to speak with Migrant Help again, they were repeatedly assured that, once again, they would be offered emergency accommodation and not a hotel room. In fact, they were taken to Serco’s Britannia Hotel in Didsbury. This is the exact hotel where RAPAR first exposed human rights violations that date back to the spring of 2022. Further, as the family were in the reception area in Didsbury one of the Serco staff directly implicated in their allegations of abuse and assault at the Stockport Hotel actually phoned through to the reception to confirm that they were there, further traumatising the family and triggering flashbacks. Once again the family returned to the Stockport resident sheltering them. From this coming Thursday, 27th April, their current shelter will no longer be available for them and, on the same day, they must present at Manchester Magistrates Court at 9.30 am, to plead before a District Judge. This follows their being arrested and charged upon discharge from Stepping Hill hospital last November. On 18th November 2022, Stepping Hill Hospital wrote to mum and dad stating that “We have been informed that Serco have investigated your concerns, that investigation has been shared with GMP, and GMP have determined that it is not in the public interest for them to investigate”. So far, when the Home Office, the Hospital and Social Services have attempted to justify their actions, they have often referred to the fact that there is no ongoing investigation into allegations of assault and abuse. However, on 12th April, the MEN reported that “GMP confirmed an investigation into a suspected assault on Shay at the hotel where they lived is ongoing, but no arrests have been made.” RAPAR is calling for a short demonstration of solidarity with this family before they enter to plead before a District Judge. Come along and please send messages of support to [email protected]. Thursday, 27th April, steps of Manchester Magistrates Court, 09.15 Manchester Magistrates Court:, Manchester, M60 1PR On the 12th of April, the MEN (Manchester Evening News) reported the UK Home Office's failure to safely house Shay Babagar and his family.
Shay and his family came to Greater Manchester last year after fleeing Pakistan where the 35-year-old human rights activist was involved in political groups fighting for the freedom of the occupied Balochistan region. Shay believes that he and his family's lives would be in danger if they were returned to Pakistan. The MEN describes the abuse and inhumane conditions that Shay's family experienced in a Serco-run hotel in Stockport, Greater Manchester and their difficulties in securing safe accommodation through the Home Office. The Home Office has a statutory responsibility to house people seeking asylum. At the moment, the Home Office has contracted several private companies in England to provide accommodation in 'contingency hotels'. Shay went on hunger strike in November to highlight the conditions that people seeking asylum faced at hotels. Allegations of assault at the hotel where Shay's family were housed were reported to the police while he was in hospital, while RAPAR has for many months been challenging the conditions in these hotels in Manchester following several 'resident' reports of abuse and substandard living conditions. (See here and here.) The MEN reports: A refugee father and his family have been left 'homeless' following allegations he was assaulted at a hotel housing asylum seekers. Shay Babagar, his wife and daughter have been sofa surfing since leaving the hotel in November. The family refuse to return to an asylum seeker hotel. Protesters stormed Stockport council offices on Tuesday (April 11), demanding the family is housed immediately. The local authority says it is bound by laws requiring the Home Office provides asylum seekers accommodation. Greater Manchester Police have confirmed an investigation into a suspected assault on Shay at the hotel where they lived is ongoing, but no arrests have been made. Serco, which manages the hotel, 'completely refutes' the allegations. The human rights activist went on hunger strike in November to highlight the alleged conditions asylum seekers are facing at hotels. Allegations of assault at the hotel where Shay's family were housed were reported to the police while he was in hospital. Legal proceedings relating to the suitability of the contingency accommodation offered to Shay’s family are under way, but a judicial review has not yet been lodged. The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that Migrant Help UK offered new accommodation for the family in Liverpool following the protest with help from the Home Office and Stockport council staff. But campaigners say the family was taken to a hotel in Manchester, which they refused to enter. A Home Office spokesperson said: "As required by law, we provide asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute with free, fully furnished accommodation, three meals a day and a weekly allowance. This applies from their point of arrival in the UK. We do not comment on individual cases." Read the rest of the piece on MEN here. And see RAPAR's recent post on Migrant Voice's report on hotel conditions in England.  Beds in a room at an asylum hotel: some people live in rooms with 10 strangers (c) The Guardian Migrant Voice, a London-based charity organisation working with migrants and undocumented people, and RAPAR's partner organisation, released a report at the end of April that set out, in detail, utilising the testimonies of 170 'residents', the inhumane conditions inside Home Office 'continency hotels'. The report was featured in the Guardian newspaper on the 22nd of April:
Asylum seekers have been forced to live for a year in windowless rooms smaller than prison cells, served food so dire it is blamed for causing diabetes, and have spent days in their underwear because they only have one change of clothes. These are the shocking conditions laid bare this weekend in a comprehensive report from the charity Migrant Voice, which took testimony from 170 asylum seekers staying in London hotels that are supposed to serve as short-term accommodation. The charity has chronicled repeated accounts of overcrowding, “filthy rooms”, abusive and obstructive staff and “dangerously erratic” healthcare. The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, recently told MPs that these hotels were “luxurious”. More than 50,000 asylum seekers are being housed in nearly 400 hotels at a cost of more than £6m a day, with the Home Office struggling to reduce a record backlog of cases. Although the research gives only a snapshot of conditions inside this huge asylum hotel network, it is one of the most comprehensive insights available into the experiences of its residents. (Read the rest of the piece.) RAPAR's campaign Serco must go! (Serco is the Home Office contractor charged with providing asylum accommodation in the Northwest) has been established for several years. Most notably as part of this work, RAPAR has led a campaign alongside Shay Babagar and his family to challenge conditions and treatment in Serco-run hotels in Manchester. Shay's family reported significant abuses and inhumane treatment inside Serco hotels, and RAPAR and the family have been working together to ensure safety and rights for Shay and his wife and child, and all other residents of contingency hotels in the UK. The report from Migrant Voice echoes and confirms RAPAR's ongoing concerns about and challenges to conditions in asylum hotels. Speaking with the Guardian, Dr Rhetta Moran from RAPAR said: “People are not only dissuaded from registering complaints, they are also threatened that notes will be put on to their asylum applications with the Home Office if they register complaints.” Migrant Voice's and RAPAR's work to challenge conditions and treatment in Serco-run hotels, and hotels run by other private companies, continues. The Guardian's piece ends with a response from a Home Office spokesperson claiming safety (and safe-guarding) and high standards in hotels (claims that RAPAR has consistently disproven). A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the safety and welfare of those in our care extremely seriously. We have safeguarding procedures to ensure those in hotels are as safe and supported as possible, ensuring that accusations are investigated. “We expect high standards from all of our providers, and any asylum seekers who have problems with their accommodation can contact Migrant Help, 24/7, every day of the year.” (Guardian, 22nd April). You can read the full report from Migrant Voice on their site: "No rest. No security" - Report into the experiences of asylum seekers in hotels (summary also available).  Last night (24th Jan.), Yvette Cooper, Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford & Knottingley, posted a tweet exposing the UK Home Office's negligence in safeguarding children in asylum contingency 'hotels'.
Cooper said that 1 in 4 children in one Home Office-funded hotel have gone missing, that half of them are still missing, and that the UK Government is failing to act. For many months, RAPAR has been calling for change to the Home Office's accommodation of people seeking asylum in the UK. In early 2022, RAPAR uncovered and reported neglect and safeguarding concerns in a Serco-run hotel in Manchester when we found that the children there were not registered in school and were being taught by other residents and volunteers in the carpark of the hotel: Refugee pupils with no school places have lessons in Manchester car parks (Guardian, 8th April. 2022) Later in 2022, we learned about significant safe-guarding concerns in another Serco-run contingency hotel in Stockport, and at the time wrote an open letter to the leader of Stockport Council. Shortly after that, we issued a press release setting out the concerns of the residents of the hotel and a further press release when Stockport Council told us that they shared our concerns about the hotel. RAPAR has been working particularly closely with a man named Shay Babagar, a former resident of the Stockport hotel, who went on hunger strike for 35 days to protest against the conditions in the hotel to which his wife and child were subjected. Further information on our 'Seeking Justice' campaign is here. The issues in the Stockport hotel, and Shay's hunger strike, have received significant media attention:
And last month, RAPAR issued a press release (16th Dec. 2022) when a whistle-blower and former Serco employee came to us to speak out about safeguarding, racism and scabies at another Serco asylum hotel in Warrington, citing staff's lack of DBS checks and understanding of safeguarding procedures, and their mistreatment of residents. The safe-guarding issues and Home Office negligence to which Cooper refers are systemic and longstanding, throughout Home-Office contingency hotels - just this weekend past, the Guardian revealed that 'Scores of child asylum seekers kidnapped from Home Office hotel. Nonetheless, the inhuman treatment of 1000s of people seeking refuge, and the kidnapping and disappearance of 100s of children in the hotels, remain ignored by the Home Office and denied by the for-profit companies that run the hotels. At the same time, as the Independent revealed today, persistent, egregious delays in the asylum processing system mean that families seeking asylum are forced to life in these unsafe conditions for indefinite periods (Independent 25th Jan. Thousands of asylum seekers living in hotels cannot be told refugee status). It is vital that, immediately, hotel residents throughout n the UK are invited to participate in developing effective methods for keeping themselves and their families safe: people seeking asylum did not create these unsafe conditions and have every motivation to be part of the solution. From the 2015 moment when the Mighty Mark George KC became a RAPAR Patron - to our delight and gratitude - he responded swiftly, cutting straight to the chase, whenever we reached out for his help. His unique combination of unbridled passion for confronting injustice, analytical precision, and outrageous wit, created a tremendous force for good. At this time, we send all of the very best of our wishes to Mark’s family. in solidarity. A note from Mark's son, Tom George, on his passing, A twitter thread from his family. And Mark's last tweet on the 15th Dec. 2022.  |
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