Call to scrap asylum vouchers

Hundreds have been brought to Glasgow

Union leaders in Scotland have joined calls for the Home Office to abolish the controversial voucher system for asylum seekers.

In a Christmas message to the government, the Scottish Trades Union Congress said the system humiliates refugees and singles them out for racial abuse.

The Home Office is currently reviewing the scheme, under which asylum seekers receive £28 worth of vouchers a week for food and clothing, which they can only exchange at certain shops.

So we are urging the government to have a heart this Christmas by scrapping the voucher scheme and allowing those seeking asylum in our country to have some human dignity.

STUC's Rozanne Foyer

The STUC's submission will add to the pressure for a change of heart.

The union body is calling for the abolition of the system claiming it is responsible for the "shameful treatment" asylum seekers in this country are forced to endure.

STUC assistant secretary Rozanne Foyer said: "The Home Office will be conducting a review of the whole voucher scheme over the Christmas period in response to the concerns raised earlier this year by trade unions at Labour's party conference.

"We want this review to bring about serious changes to redress the current shameful treatment that asylum seekers must bear on a daily basis.

"So we are urging the government to have a heart this Christmas by scrapping the voucher scheme and allowing those seeking asylum in our country to have some human dignity.

Many rely on the vouchers to survive

"After all Mary and Joseph were seeking asylum when they had baby Jesus in a manger.

"2,000 years later we should now understand the lessons set out in the bible and the value of treating vulnerable people with hospitality and humanity."

Hundreds of asylum seekers are housed in Glasgow as part of the Home Office's policy of dispersing them around the country to spread the burden on local authorities.

Many are in high-rise flats in the Springburn area in the north of the city.

There have been reports of racist incidents involving asylum seekers and refugees.

Although the city has taken in asylum seekers for many years, the first in a wave of 600 from Somalia and Romania arrived in March.

Parliament inquiry

They are staying in the city while their applications to remain in the UK are processed, a period which is likely to last for about two years.

Glasgow City Council has stressed that the cost is being borne by the UK Government and they are being housed in blocks where there is a high turnover of flats.

The Scottish Parliament's social inclusion committee has launched an inquiry into the treatment of asylum seekers.