Homeless refugees putting unprecedented pressure on services, says Glasgow council

The asylum system risks "damaging social cohesion" with homeless refugees putting "unprecedented pressure" on services in Glasgow, the city council has warned.

- Libby Brooks

Glasgow council's convener for homelessness, Allan Casey, said the city had welcomed asylum seekers for decades and was the largest asylum dispersal area outside London.

But the "unique" circumstances of Scotland's stronger housing rights, such as a statutory duty to accommodate single adult males, combined with the last Conservative government's changes to batch-processing claims, meant "the current cost to the city is running into the tens of millions, with no end in sight".

The Guardian has reported how the number of homeless refugees in Glasgow rose steeply as the Home Office accelerated its plan to clear the asylum backlog before last year's general election.

In the past year, hundreds of people who received their asylum decision elsewhere in the UK have come to Glasgow to access homelessness services.

More than half of those in the city's temporary accommodation are from households that have been granted leave to remain.