NASS
(Nasty, Arrogant, Stupid Service)
Just
about every claim for support made for new arrivals in the Tees
Valley has been handled badly by the National Asylum Support Service
(NASS). Examples include: a dispersed family with four children
under the age of five, and no one able to speak English, left
in a bus station for over three hours. The Social Services Emergency
Duty Team discovered a further three families in the same situation.
The private housing provider, who claimed they were not informed
by NASS of their arrival, had not met them.
Sending
a man to Leicester away from his best friend and only known contact
in the UK, claiming that there wasn't any single male accommodation
in the area (there were at least 20 suitable properties known
to NASS for several weeks), and the same day dispersing a single
man from Leicester to the Tees Valley, whose brother lives in
Leicester! Dispersing a brother and a cousin of an asylum-seeker
in Middlesbrough to Birmingham and Hull respectively. A refugee
agency managed to reverse these last two dispersals.
Faxes
get lost, and sometimes turn up two months after being sent; a
male asylum seeker dispersed to a women-only hostel just about
as far away from Middlesbrough as it's possible to be; travel
warrants sent to the wrong address or too late or not sent at
all; the list goes on and on.
It's
no better when asylum seekers are dispersed to the Tees Valley.
A man and his heavily pregnant wife put on the wrong bus and ending
up in Dover instead of Middlesbrough, and then refusing Middlesbrough
Council's offer of paying for overnight accommodation in Dover
for dispersal the next day - NASS insisted that they travel to
Middlesbrough that evening (over 350 miles) and arrived well after
midnight; dispersing families without contacting the housing provider
of their arriva; vouchers wrongly calculated; dispersals not taking
place, yet NASS sending correspondence and vouchers to empty properties;
etc. etc.
NASS
are a shambles, but I cannot believe that a lot of what they do
is not done deliberately. It has to be government policy to ensure
the dispersal and voucher system is as punitive as they can get
away with. No organisation could possibly be as incompetent as
NASS - can they?
Nationally,
between 30% - 40% of NASS applicants either withdraw their accommodation
element of support once they arrive in an area starved of resources
and support services, or do not make an application for accommodation
in the first place. It results in huge numbers living in London
(where the community support is) on friends' and families floors
or living rough. The dispersal scheme is not working.
No one
accepts that there should be 'No Go Areas', but some areas are
totally unsuitable to some asylum seekers. Single mothers should
not be placed in areas under stress with high crime and vandalism.
Empty properties are empty for a reason and asylum seekers have
been the target of racist abuse and attacks. Many feel under siege.
The BNP have been leafleting and now have the confidence to stand
candidates in local elections on an anti-asylum seekers platform,
given succour by the racist language of politicians and the tabloid
press.
No one
is denying that resources and services are stretched in London
and the south east. But to alleviate the situation, surely the
government has to make it advantageous to live in the provinces.
Give people 100% of Income Support - in cash - and housing benefits,
and invest in community development initiatives to increase the
capacity of community groups. Increase resources for regional
support, health and education services. Allow all asylum seekers
to work from day one and contribute to society.
There
is one area that the Home Office is spending more money on in
the Tees Valley, and that's an extra Chief Immigration Officers
post. Why? We think it's to deal solely with removals and deportations.
Anon: North East Coalition
For Asylum Rights
