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Homes help for asylum seekers
Reporter: BEATRIZ AYALA
Date online: 09/03/2010
AN Oldham vicar is helping to lead a campaign to improve housing conditions for asylum seekers in the North-West.
Reverend John Simmons, of Christ Church in Block Lane, Chadderton, is also one of the leaders of the Greater Manchester Citizens for Sanctuary group, made up of faith, voluntary and refugee organisations.
The group has already met with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and presented them with their investigation into the state of housing for asylum seekers.
This included the case of one woman forced to sleep with the lights on for four months due to a cockroach infestation. As a result, UKBA officials agreed to investigate specific cases raised, as well as review and improve the way asylum seekers are briefed about the area they will live in.
Rev Simmons said: “This was a great achievement for Greater Manchester.
“The UKBA is taking our requests seriously and we had a productive meeting to discuss solutions to some of the many problems with housing in the North-West.
“For example, they have committed to clarifying the contracts to ensure housing providers know they need to provide a lockable bedroom door or a lockable wardrobe so that people can protect their belongings, something that any human being would see as vital.”
Daniel Murphy, chairman of the UNITE Voluntary Association, which is also a member of the Citizens group, said: “I’m glad the UKBA is now listening to our concerns and we are going to monitor the complaints system over the next few months to ensure housing defects, infestations and faulty appliances are being dealt with quickly and effectively.”
Greater Manchester Citizens for Sanctuary is now looking towards developing a Sanctuary Mark with the UK Border Agency as an indicator of quality for housing providers.
Comments
The question is, if things are so bad here for asylum seekers then why do they bypass several free european countries to enter the UK?
"An Oldham vicar is helping to lead a campaign to improve housing conditions for asylum seekers in the North-West."
From were do the asylum seeker come from Ireland,no doubt it.They are illegal immigrants and should be sent back to the first safe country from which they came and sent back quickly if not sooner.
Hear hear Flake ! Asylum seekers should go to their nearest country and we are the furthest away from any of them (but the easiest touch when it comes to hand outs)
well said its about time we looked after our own first !!!!!!!!!!!!
This has to be the worst thing iv ever seen in my entire life!
first there here ILLEGALY
second they get a house, money, mobile phones, food vouchers, and they are also allowed to claim child benifits for children that are not living in this country now if thats what they get for coming to england arent we doing something wrong?????
why dont they find houses for the thousands upon thousands of homeless people that were born in this country????
oh thats right WE DONT MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!
did anyone ever wonder why asylum seekers are having children in this country????
thats because you have a legal right to be in a country you were born in thats right it means they will be a uk resident once they have been born here how sad is that?
imagine one of us in the uk going to claim asylum in any of there countrys???? YEAH RIGHT IT WOULDNT HAPPEN WE WOULD GET DEPORTED WITHIN MINUTES
IMPROVE OUR NEEDS FIRST!
REMEMBER THE SAYING LOOK AFTER NUMBER 1
This is just another way in which to get noticed and possibly a M.B.E.will be on the agenda for this man some time in the future.!! If not that at least he will be somewhere in the history books for all his good works for the less fortunate.Pity he hasnt taken a look at the number of Oldham families still waiting for council housing and quite a number are working for a living not sponging off the state.Get real and start looking after your own countrymen first.No publicity in that though.!!!!!
Too right ! lets worry about those that travel through at least 7 other "safe" countries to get to us. Damn right we wouldnt get anything if we tried to claim in any of their countries.Charity begins at home .
"Homes help for asylum seekers?" What about long suffering Oldhamers, having to live in unacceptable conditions and unable to get a council house? Who's going to champion their cause?
Pancho Villa
Its about time people stuck up for our own, we have enough immigrants here who hate this country but for its easy touch with benefits are more than happy to stay, of course all us saying such, where is fightback to claim we are all racist? and your right ask for these benefits and free housing in their own country, the only help we would get is a banana boat home!. I would advise this vicar tend his own flock.
OK just to set a few things straight. Asylum seekers get around £10 a week less in cash, however they do get their utility bills paid and a 3 figure sum every six months, supposedly to buy clothes. This set up allows the government to claim that they get less money than an unemployed person.
They do not get mobile phones or food vouchers (anymore) they cannot claim child benefits and if they have a child here they do not gain nationality. They are also banned from working athough some do.
I assume Reverend Simmons will be giving some of these people sanctuary in his own house and church ?
The only way ordinary people can do anything about this ridiculous state of affairs is via the ballot box.NOT THE BNP BY THE WAY!!!
First - asylum seekers are NOT here illegally. Second - the 'massive handouts' are little more than HALF of the Income Support level (ie thats half of what the Government considers is the LEAST that someone can live on in this country.)Third- God forbid that any of you hate-filled people should ever have to seek help from someone else - they might just think as you do.
Beal, please try to look around you and realise whats happening within this country. The point will come when more people are claiming hand outs than there are working. What do we do then?
Do you ever watch crimewatch? Ever noticed how many criminals are immigrants? Our tolerance has led to this. What do we do Beal, carry on as we are? If you have any better ideas please tell us.
Goodness knows where you get your information Beal, I can tell you from experience that you are very wrong. As I posted before, asylum seekers get about £10 a week less than UK people, but the other benefits they get mean that in reality they receive roughly double in benefits.
What you are seeing here is just how angry people are with the Liebor government who by their own admission have 'forgotten' the white working class.
I am shocked at the negativity of these comments. People here are forgetting how fortunate we are to live in a safe country with health care, housing and benefits. Take a moment to consider if you would accept help if you lived in a country that did not provide you with this safety and assurance. Flake to call the reverend a God botherer and Linda to suggest that anyone helping others is doing so purely to “get noticed” is despicable and shows how negative your lives must be.
Why is it suddenly okay to publicly berate a small group of kind, hard working people for doing something selfless.
Take a long hard look at your argument and its obvious lack of logic. Who do you suppose is going to help the people you are saying are being ignored? It won’t be you as you'll be too busy taking care of your own! the last time I looked this was a round world. We should be for helping any person in need no matter where they originate or where they choose and or are forced to live.
Illegal immigrants get £35.00 per person in food vouchers a week so if 5 people times by 5, even if child. They get clothes vouchers, mobile phone vouchers, travel allowance, vouchers for Curry's the electrical store for washing machines, microwaves etc. These are then readilly replaced again after a couple of weeks when the people claim to have been burgled and these items stolen when in fact they have been sold on for more money and what do they get more vouchers! Great Britain hey!!!!
I feel saddened and sickened by many of the negative comments here. No doubt there are people who abuse the system, just as there are 'native' Britons who are tax evaders and benefit cheats. Do we therefore label all claimants and tax payers as fraudsters and thieves? How shocking to see such evidence of bigotry and selfishness in a supposedly compassionate society. I wonder how these same people would have responded to the many Jews fleeing the Holocaust in the 1930s.
oldham scotland - I haven't needed to say anything. I have my own views on abusers of a state system designed to look after the vulnerable of any background. I trust you have received your answer from bea, CP, Mandy P and glodwick exile!!
me me me me me me me you all sound like Adolf. You really need to meet some of these Sanctuary seekers for yourselves and get to know their situations and then bleet.
Have Your Say
This God botherer would do better to look to the people here legally, who get far less in benefits than Assylum seekers do. All assylum seekers housed around the city have been refused refugee status, and are awaiting their cases to be heard in court where the vast majority fail.
How many single adults don't even have a home at all? There's a huge waiting list for housing, and whilst it should be adequate, surely those people already here should have first call on it.
By Flake @ 09/03/2010 12:41:19
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