Hundreds of asylum seekers in Glasgow were given just 30 minutes' notice before being removed from their homes and taken to hotels during the pandemic.
Those taken from their homes 'didn't understand where they were being moved to or why' and suffered an increase in mental health issues as a result, a damning report has found.
Home Office appointed contractor Mears moved around 200 asylum seekers living in Glasgow into hotels during the pandemic to minimise travel and allow their staff to 'ensure' social distancing was observed.
However, it was found that socially distancing was more difficult at the hotels and there was 'little or no space to allow people to spend time outside of their rooms'. Those taken to hotels were also not given any access to cash to buy their own food or pay for essentials like mobile phone top-ups.
In a report on experiences of those seeking asylum in Glasgow during the pandemic, it's revealed that the number of people in the hotels reporting feelings of suicide and self-harm trebled in the first four months of being there.
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) who provide support, including counselling services, reported their clients increasingly presenting with depression and the escalation of existing psychological conditions and found the temporary nature of the living conditions in hotels in particular, combined with existing indicators, created 'extreme vulnerability' for some.
Mentioned in the evaluation carried out in August 2020, is Badreddin Abadlla Adam, a 28-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan, who stabbed six people, including a police officer, in the Park Inn hotel on West George Street before being shot dead by an armed response unit on June 26.
Adam contacted the Home Office, contractors Mears and Migrant Help a total of 72 times about his health and accommodation in the period leading up to the attack.
The evaluation, published following a Freedom of Information request, concluded that his contact with all three bodies "should have acted as a warning".
Other issues raised in the evaluation include that having no access to cash was 'keenly felt and had a significant impact on the control people felt they had over the situation they were in'.
The issue with money was compounded by the fact that food provided by the hotel was a problem for some service users, especially those with religious dietary requirements, and during Ramadan. Those unhappy with the food were unable to buy their own which resulted in volunteers stepping in to help.
The evaluation, only published this week, details: "The move from self-contained flats to hotels could have been handled more sensitively. Communication should have been clearer, people should have been given more notice and the reason for the moves explained to them in greater detail.
"Whilst the hotel accommodation secured was in keeping with the contract and could be described as suitable on a short-term basis, it is clear that there was a deterioration in the personal experience of service users as the time they were or have been accommodated in hotels has extended.
"The combined impact of previous trauma, being accommodated long term in hotels and the restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 had a significant impact on the mental wellbeing of service users at a time when it was difficult to get access to support services."
It adds: "Asylum seekers had experienced a withdrawal of face-to-face services they are reliant on not only through Home Office contracts and partnership organisations but from charities and other Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) who provide support, including counselling services.
"Hotel staff became part of the ecosystem supporting asylum seekers and did so without experience or training that would allow them to recognise any changes to the mental wellbeing of those being accommodated."
The Home Office evaluation details that there was an increase in the asylum population due to the UK Government suspending moving people on from asylum support during the pandemic.
A shortage of accommodation in Glasgow before the pandemic resulted in people being accommodated in serviced apartments on what was intended to be a 'short-term contingency basis'. Many of those people were moved to hotels at the start of the pandemic.
It's been recommended that the Home Office should consider whether an agreement could be obtained from neighbouring local authorities to take some of the dispersed asylum seekers while a for short term dispersal whilst a longer-term solution is pursued.
A Home Office spokesman said: "Due to the pandemic the Home Office had to use an unprecedented number of hotels for asylum seekers, including in Glasgow.
"The use of hotels is unacceptable and we are working hard to find appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers but local authorities must do all they can to help house people permanently.
"Since this horrific incident we have undertaken a number of significant changes to keep asylum seekers safe, including how we, our contractors and charities spot vulnerable individuals and provide them with wraparound support and appropriate accommodation.
"The Home Office has completed the majority of recommendations in the review which found that hotels in Glasgow were of a good standard, clean and well maintained.
"Our new plan for immigration, which is going through Parliament now, will fix the broken asylum system, enabling us to grant protection to those entitled to it and to remove those with no right to be here more quickly."
