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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Men who escaped fire in crowded London flat face homelessness

Survivors of a fire in Tower Hamlets
Survivors of the fire in Tower Hamlets last month (l-r) Md Rubel Ali, Namush Shahadat, Nazmul Hasan Chowdhury, Dipon Chandra Nath and Shahed Ahmed. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Up to a dozen men who escaped a fatal fire in an overcrowded flat in east London described by one as being “worse than slums in Bangladesh” are facing homelessness from Monday because they cannot find affordable housing.

In a case marking a new low for Britain’s housing crisis, they are among 18 students and workers of Bangladeshi origin that were squeezed into a two-bedroom flat in the Maddocks House council block in Shadwell. An e-bike battery caught fire last month, killing Mizanur Rahman, who only days earlier had moved into the flat that was packed with bunk beds.

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