Written evidence submitted by the Scottish Refugee Council (AAC0058)

1. As Scotland’s national refugee charity, Scottish Refugee Council has 40 years’ experience of providing information, advice and advocacy services to refugees and asylum seekers and supporting refugee integration in all its aspects. We work within increasingly complex and interconnected settings impacting refugees living in Scotland. We bring a unique contribution to national and UK refugee support, including:

• A focus on responsive, consistent and holistic support to refugees, whatever their legal status or origin: Since 1985 we have supported more than 30,000 refugees arriving and living in Scotland, providing a comprehensive and unique range of services to refugees independently, directly and in partnership with other agencies across the country. These include Crisis Humanitarian programmes, Family Reunion, Refugee Integration and Employment Services, Asylum Support Services.

• National leadership, collaboration and capacity building with and for organisations working with refugees in Scotland, so that they can effectively represent their communities and connect with others. We are a co-lead on Scotland’s New Scots: Refugee Integration Strategy and coordinate the New Scots Connect platform, supporting a network of over 180 refugee-led and refugee-assisting organisations across Scotland. We lead on co-ordination of services and activities at a local level and support practitioners, decision makers and refugee leaders at local, regional and national levels to deliver and inform the Delivery Plan of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and its vision for a welcoming National leadership, collaboration and capacity building with and for organisations working with refugees in Scotland, so that they can effectively represent their communities and connect with others.

• Having refugees at the heart of what we do People with lived experience have a place in our Board of Trustees, Senior Management Team, staff and volunteers and inform all our work. In 2023 we established the Ukrainian Collective. Our Afghan Citizens Information Service, was staffed only by people with lived service, helping more than 350 people who fled the Taliban regime. We delivered the New Scots Leadership programme, where 60 people from refugee backgrounds were supported to share their stories with the media.

Glasgow: Scotland’s biggest dispersal city

2. Glasgow has been a dispersal city for asylum seekers since 1999. The city became the UK Home Office's largest and only Scottish dispersal area when the dispersal policy was implemented. Over the past two decades, Glasgow has hosted around 10% of overall UK asylum applicants. The city's role as a dispersal area has significantly impacted its demographics, culture, and community support networks. There exist extensive networks of third sector and community organisations supporting people seeking protection. This is thought to b a driver of the current trend of people who have been recently granted refugee status in other parts of the UK seeking to be housed in Glasgow.

3. The baseline population of refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow is higher than anywhere else in Scotland by a significant margin, as shown in the table and chart below. Home office data shows 94% of asylum seekers in Scotland currently live in Glasgow.

Source: Home Office “Support by Local Authority” dataset, Sept 24

Fig.1: Individuals with an asylum claim receiving Home Office support, by Local Authority, Scotland

Source: Home Office “Support by Local Authority” dataset, Sept 24

Glasgow’s housing emergency

4. Glasgow has a uniquely challenging landscape amongst Scottish local authorities. As well as being the biggest dispersal city in Scotland, the city has a deep-rooted legacy of persistent deprivation. 80% of the city’s social rented homes are located in the most deprived areas—and anticipated population growth of 2.4% by 2032.

5. The ongoing cost of living crisis has further exacerbated housing issues, making it increasingly difficult for vulnerable populations to secure stable accommodation. Currently, over 2,600 households are trapped in temporary housing for an average of 225 days, often in substandard conditions far from their support networks.[1]

6. The financial burden is substantial, with emergency accommodation costs estimated at £53.4 million for the upcoming year and projected asylum-related expenses of £26.5 million. [2]

7. Other policies, such as the abolition of the priority need test in 2012 has led to people from other parts of the UK travelling to Glasgow to access Homelessness services. The abolition of the priority need test means that all unintentionally homeless households in Scotland are now entitled to settled accommodation, regardless of their circumstances. This policy change was implemented to ensure that everyone who becomes homeless through no fault of their own has the right to housing support.

8. This differential Scottish policy, along with the scrapping of the local connection test for homelessness in 2022 has led to unprecedented pressure on the city’s housing stock.

9. These factors have prompted the Scottish Housing Regulator to identify "systemic failure" in homelessness services, leading Glasgow City Council to declare a housing emergency in November 2023.

10. The housing situation in the city has disproportionately impacted people in the asylum system. According to internal analysis of Scottish Refugee Council data, since April 2024:

• 25% of helpline clients have called about refugee related homelessness issues. 
• 11% of helpline clients have called about asylum related homelessness issues. 
• 23% of helpline clients have called about accommodation issues. [3]

11. Housing is the priority issue raised consistently in Scottish Refugee Council’s engagement with New Scots and service providers - quality of housing in the asylum process, homelessness once people are granted status, housing supply, quality of infrastructure in neighbourhoods, affordability and understanding of systems to access suitable housing. Housing remains the foundation of any integration journey.

12. In June 2023, the UK Government announced a streamlined asylum process to address the significant backlog of asylum decisions and reduce the numbers of asylum applicants in contingency and dispersed accommodation. The accelerated approach to decision making has and continues to impact significantly on Glasgow’s Homelessness Services.

13. Over 54% of homeless households in temporary accommodation in Glasgow are from households who have been granted leave to remain. Refugee households are more likely to require temporary accommodation due to a lack of family and wider support networks in the city.

Refugee Homelessness in Glasgow

14. Glasgow’s homelessness issues have been compounded by a dramatic increase in asylum seeker and refugee applications, which have nearly doubled in the last year (from 1,384 to 2,709). [4]

15. The number of households in Glasgow becoming homeless directly from leaving supported accommodation has more than doubled in the last year (from 704 to 1,619). This ties in with the increase in asylum seekers/refugees in the city. To give a sense of the scale of the issue, compared to other cities in Scotland, Edinburgh’s figure also doubled, but is much smaller in magnitude (from 84 to 181).[5]

16. The number of live homeless applications has continued to increase during 2024/25. As of December 2024, there were 6,663 homeless households with a live application. A total of 4,036 households were living in temporary accommodation. Within this figure, 1,496 households were living in bed and breakfast/hotel rooms, which were used to provide emergency accommodation to homeless households due to the lack of available temporary accommodation and housing in the city.[6]

17. As of December 2024, there were 1,726 refugee households with a live homeless application (26% of the total live applications). A total of 781 households were living in bed and breakfast/hotel rooms (52% of homeless households who were living in bed and breakfast/hotel rooms) and 652 refugee households were living in temporary accommodation (temporary furnished flats).[7]

18. During this time, of 3499 children in stopgap accommodation such as B&Bs and hotels in Glasgow, 2101 are from refugee households.[8]

19. Significant numbers of households – mostly single males - are travelling to Glasgow from other parts of the UK (Belfast, London, Manchester) with 579 households travelling to Glasgow since April 2024. Glasgow City Council attribute this situation to differential policy such as the scrapping of priority need and the local connection test. They advocate for priority need to be removed in the rest of the UK to level this playing field.  [9]

20. Recent Homelessness in Scotland 2023-24 statistics from the Scottish Government show that 67% of all homelessness applications made from those granted leave to remain are made in Glasgow.[10]

21. The increase in the number of family reunion visas issued recently has placed significant pressure on Homelessness Services and on temporary accommodation. Many of the applications for family reunions have come from households who have travelled to Glasgow from other parts of the UK.

22. Glasgow City Council and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership have not received funding from the UK Government towards the cost of providing temporary accommodation and mitigating the housing/homelessness, health and social operational costs that have been a result of the accelerated decision making.

23. In addition, there is a growing cohort of asylum seekers with negative decisions and given the scale of the challenges there is every likelihood that Glasgow will see an increased pattern of people with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) rough sleeping as we are seeing in other parts of the UK. The urgency of this issue was highlighted in a recent survey[11] of those accessing crisis support from Fair Way Scotland, a partnership of third sector organisations helping to prevent homelessness and destitution among those with NRPF or who have other Restricted Eligibility for state support. The study by Heriot-Watt University and funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that thousands of people in Scotland, including long-standing members of communities, are being forced into extreme poverty and homelessness by hostile UK immigration policy. Intense outreach capacity from third sector, health and social care support will be required to support those who are deemed most vulnerable. 

Short term Recommendations

24. Significant financial investment- The cost to the city of Glasgow of changes to Home Office processes are into the tens of millions. This level of expenditure is unsustainable and Glasgow City Council require urgent engagement with the Home Office to discuss financial assistance. A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: “If financial support is not forthcoming, we will require a pause to the dispersal programme so that we can ensure that there is the available property to appropriately house those who are already in the city.”

25. An acknowledgement from ministers of the complexity of the situation in Glasgow, with steps taken towards improved political working relationships between UK Gov, Scot Gov and Glasgow City Council.

Long Term Recommendations

26. Many of the relevant policy levers and funding sources that support refugees rest with the UK Government. The previous UK Government was explicit in seeking to create a ‘hostile environment’ for people seeking asylum. It helped to manufacture the perception of a ‘refugee crisis’ within sections of the media, it pursued policies that contravene international law, and it sought to water down the UK’s commitments to humanitarian protection.

27. Asylum support continues to be a punitive system of low levels of financial support without the ability to access paid work for months and years on end and increasingly resorted to accommodating people in hotels and accommodation centres leading to crisis levels of mental health and enduring poverty.

28. The UK’s asylum system has not fundamentally changed in decades. A patchwork of legislation from consecutive governments has failed the individuals and communities engaging with the system. People seeking protection have been demonised and used to further anti-immigration political agendas.

29. It’s time for a new, principles based approach. In line with the New Scots Integration Strategy, the founding principle of the UK asylum system should be changed to integration from the day of arrival, rather than integration from the point of refugee status granted.

30. The UK Government should adopt a model of integration from day one of arrival using the framework below. Policies relating to people seeking protection should make progress towards meet the following tests:

• Provide the best opportunities for integration at the earliest possible time when compared to counterfactual policies.
• Acknowledge the barriers to integration that people seeking protection may encounter.
• Be in the best interests of the individuals and families seeking protection, and the communities they live in.
• Aligns with international obligations and takes steps towards aligning with international trends.

31. Applying this framework to asylum accommodation, people seeking protection have the right to live in housing that is clean, safe, and meets their needs. Accommodation should be community based, with good access to basic, vital services such as health and social care, legal representation, places of worship, shops, and education.

32. Allowing people seeking protection the right to work would also remove the ‘cliff-edge’ effect of the removal of asylum support once a decision has been granted, mitigating a lot of the risk to individuals associated with this period, and alleviating pressures on local government.

Feb 2025