SEE RAPAR'S LATEST PRESS RELEASE: 21st Feb. 2023:
Racist attacks and young people missing from refugee hotels are result of UK Government’s lack of action seven years ago
Racist attacks and young people missing from refugee hotels are result of UK Government’s lack of action seven years ago
Private firms are making increased profits as the government pays millions of pounds a day to put up asylum seekers in the UK, the BBC has learned
BBC News has been told 395 hotels are being used to house asylum seekers, as arrivals to the UK rose last year.
Documents show one booking agency used by the Home Office trebled its pre-tax profits from £2.1m to £6.3m in the 12 months up to February 2022.
The Home Office says the asylum system is under "incredible strain".
See the rest of this piece, here.
Documents show one booking agency used by the Home Office trebled its pre-tax profits from £2.1m to £6.3m in the 12 months up to February 2022.
The Home Office says the asylum system is under "incredible strain".
See the rest of this piece, here.
Liverpool anti-racist rally on the 18th of Feb. 2023
"Serco report profit of £216 million in 2022, a 21% increase in profit worldwide. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week."
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE GATHERED at an anti-racism rally in Liverpool on the 18th of February, 2023, organised in response to far-right violence outside a hotel providing refuge to migrants last week. Large crowds attended the "refugees welcome" protest outside St George's Hall in the city centre, where RAPAR were invited to speak. Vitalis, a leading member of RAPAR, stood alongside Shay Babagar to call for solidarity, rights, and justice, and to speak out about the conditions and inhumanities in global corporation Serco's 'contingency hotels'.
The Liverpool rally was on the same day that thousands of anti racists rallied in Dublin, and over 400 gathered in Rotherham, to expose and reject fascists' attempts to blame refugees for the current economic crisis.
Please view Vitalis's speech here and see the full transcript of the speech below. (And keep scrolling for photos.)
The Liverpool rally was on the same day that thousands of anti racists rallied in Dublin, and over 400 gathered in Rotherham, to expose and reject fascists' attempts to blame refugees for the current economic crisis.
Please view Vitalis's speech here and see the full transcript of the speech below. (And keep scrolling for photos.)
RAPAR’s Liverpool speech on Saturday 18th February 2023
1. Hello Liverpool! I am Vitalis, a member of RAPAR, the human rights organisation based in Manchester and also a leader in the said organisation.
2. Today, I stand before you with Shay’s family who are seeking asylum. They come from Balochistan in Pakistan. They came to the UK because, in their homeland, they fear for their lives.
3. We three are all human rights defenders. We stand in solidarity with everyone whose presence here re-asserts their commitment to working TOGETHER to make sure that we ALL achieve EQUAL human rights. I am now going to read Shays Family’s lived experience message.
4. Last summer, we arrived in the UK. Like all the other refugee people from around the world who have arrived here since the early days of Covid, the Home Office put us into ‘contingency accommodation’. That includes hotels that had become empty, suddenly, because of Covid.
5. The Home Office contracts privatised companies to look after the hotel residents and make sure we stay safe until their applications for asylum are processed.
6. In the Northwest it’s mostly the multinational corporation Serco. Serco is being paid £1.9 billion by the UK government. In 2022, Serco reported their profits worldwide rose by 21%, or £37 million, to £216 million. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week.
7. In July we reported belongings disappeared by Serco. We reported to Migrant Help, which is contracted to deal with hotel residents’ complaints.
8. In August and through to October, we reported abusive behaviour and physical assaults by Serco workers. At the moment, the police say they are not going to investigate the assaults any further.
9. In early November one of us went on hunger strike. We stopped after 35 days because, otherwise, irreversible physical damage would happen.
10. We stand BEFORE you today, continuing our campaign to stop the inhuman and degrading treatment, underpinned by racism and xenophobia, that has happened to us and other people INSIDE Serco-run hotels.
11. We stand WITH you today, to go forward TOGETHER to stop what happened OUTSIDE the hotel last Friday night.
12. Poverty has to exist for racist and xenophobic ideas to breed. We must end the poverty being lived by refugees AND all the people from here.
13. Going forward, the overwhelming majority of us - the 45,000 people seeking asylum living in contingency accommodation and all the other refugees in the UK, need to be part of this movement from below, to stop being divided and ruled from above.
14. Solidarity
1. Hello Liverpool! I am Vitalis, a member of RAPAR, the human rights organisation based in Manchester and also a leader in the said organisation.
2. Today, I stand before you with Shay’s family who are seeking asylum. They come from Balochistan in Pakistan. They came to the UK because, in their homeland, they fear for their lives.
3. We three are all human rights defenders. We stand in solidarity with everyone whose presence here re-asserts their commitment to working TOGETHER to make sure that we ALL achieve EQUAL human rights. I am now going to read Shays Family’s lived experience message.
4. Last summer, we arrived in the UK. Like all the other refugee people from around the world who have arrived here since the early days of Covid, the Home Office put us into ‘contingency accommodation’. That includes hotels that had become empty, suddenly, because of Covid.
5. The Home Office contracts privatised companies to look after the hotel residents and make sure we stay safe until their applications for asylum are processed.
6. In the Northwest it’s mostly the multinational corporation Serco. Serco is being paid £1.9 billion by the UK government. In 2022, Serco reported their profits worldwide rose by 21%, or £37 million, to £216 million. Hotel residents receive £9.10 each per week.
7. In July we reported belongings disappeared by Serco. We reported to Migrant Help, which is contracted to deal with hotel residents’ complaints.
8. In August and through to October, we reported abusive behaviour and physical assaults by Serco workers. At the moment, the police say they are not going to investigate the assaults any further.
9. In early November one of us went on hunger strike. We stopped after 35 days because, otherwise, irreversible physical damage would happen.
10. We stand BEFORE you today, continuing our campaign to stop the inhuman and degrading treatment, underpinned by racism and xenophobia, that has happened to us and other people INSIDE Serco-run hotels.
11. We stand WITH you today, to go forward TOGETHER to stop what happened OUTSIDE the hotel last Friday night.
12. Poverty has to exist for racist and xenophobic ideas to breed. We must end the poverty being lived by refugees AND all the people from here.
13. Going forward, the overwhelming majority of us - the 45,000 people seeking asylum living in contingency accommodation and all the other refugees in the UK, need to be part of this movement from below, to stop being divided and ruled from above.
14. Solidarity
18th Feb. 2023, Liverpool: Shay speaks with Jeremy Corbyn about his family's treatment in a Serco-managed hotel in Stockport and why they are here seeking refuge.
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18th Feb. 2023, Liverpool: Vitalis and Jeremy Corbyn talk together about seeking refuge in the UK's 'hostile environment'.
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Open letter by email to:
Stockport Council Leader RAPAR has recently learned of further human rights abuses in a SERCO-run hotel in Greater Manchester. As part of our on-going campaign - SERCO MUST GO! - we have written a letter to Stockport City Council leader to describe the hotel's conditions and violations in terms of education, health, food, maintenance and cleanliness, security, freedom of movement, and staff behaviour. This open letter is based on reports from the hotel's residents, RAPAR members. View the open letter here: Open letter from RAPAR to Stockport Council |
The open letter begins:
Dear Mr Hunter Profound concerns about safeguarding and security at the Home Office subcontracted SERCO-controlled hotel located within the Stockport Council boundary I write to you as a member of the Human Rights organisation RAPAR and a Greater Manchester resident. Over the last ten days several RAPAR members who are in the National Asylum and Support system have begun to share extremely disturbing information about safeguarding and security issues related to the Stockport located SERCO run hotel that houses people seeking asylum. (You will of course know the name and location of this hotel and appreciate that it is not appropriate for me to disclose it in this Open Letter from RAPAR, thereby creating further safeguarding issues. Its identity is included in my cover email to you.) |
If you would like to support or become involved in RAPAR's SERCO MUST GO! campaign, you can:
- Either email [email protected] or message our twitter account @raparuk or Instagram @rapar4housing
- Donate to RAPAR to help with the costs of this campaign: HOW TO HELP - RAPAR
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Reaching for Rumi’s family’s rights means stopping SERCO
A year ago on 15th August 2021, the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan. Following threats on his life, RAPAR member Rumi left just before the takeover. His wife Farishta and their middle child fled Afghanistan in January 2022. They had to leave their eldest and youngest children behind with family because they didn’t have the travel documents necessary to leave. The Home Office allocated them a SERCO-run hotel room in Manchester. |
RAPAR’s ongoing campaign to STOP SERCO has been working since 2021.
See The Guardian and The Mill for media coverage of the appalling conditions and rights violations in the SERCO-run Manchester hotel, and here for RAPAR's SERCO must go! campaign. See also this leaflet for info. on for how you can help stop SERCO and help Rumi and many other families to achieve rights. |
Can't click through at the moment? That's fine. Here's what you can do to support Rumi and this campaign.
- Invite Rumi and other campaign members to speak at your event/ group/ trade union meeting, etc. Please either email [email protected] or message our twitter account @raparuk or Instagram @rapar4housing
- Donate to RAPAR to help with the costs of this campaign: HOW TO HELP - RAPAR
Join RAPAR's protest on Saturday the 30th of July 2022, 1pm to 3pm, Piccadilly Gardens.
See more here. |
SERCO must go!
Refugees living in SERCO managed hotel in Manchester need a safe way to raise their concerns. In an open letter to Fiona Ledden, RAPAR calls upon Manchester City Council to take action in the face of serious safeguarding concerns regarding refugee residents currently living in a South Manchester hotel. Click here to read the full open letter. Read this coverage on the story from The Mill. |
