[Hpn] Refugee Housing in Britian deplorable, Shelter REPORTS (fwd)

[Tom Boland]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010130/wl/britain_refugee_housing_1.html
FWD  Associated Press - Tuesday January 30, 2001

     REPORT RAPS BRITIAN REFUGEE HOUSING

LONDON (AP) - Asylum-seekers in Britain are often placed in
overcrowded, unsanitary and bug-infested living quarters with
little government assistance, according to a report released
Wednesday by an advocacy group for the homeless.

The government said the report failed to take into account the
work of a new agency responsible for monitoring such accommodation.

Shelter, a nonprofit organization assisting the homeless, said
it inspected 154 dwellings housing 309 refugees, including 48
children, in and around London between January and March of last
year.

Dampness, overcrowding, poor sanitation, unhygienic cooking
areas and lack of fire escapes were commonplace, the report said. A
fifth of the lodgings were infested with cockroaches, fleas and
bedbugs, and 80 percent had safety violations, such as windows
blocked shut, the report said.

``The chaotic system of housing provision is allowing some
private landlords to exploit the misery of asylum seekers,'' said
Chris Holmes, director of Shelter.

The Home Office, the government department responsible for
aiding asylum seekers, argued the report was completed before the
implementation in April of the new National Asylum Support Service,
or NASS.

``The Home Office does not accept, as the report implies, that
failures noted during this fieldwork necessarily apply to NASS,''
the agency said in a statement.

``NASS investigates concerns raised about the quality of
accommodation or support and will take action as appropriate.''

During 1999, the United Kingdom had 71,100 new applications for
asylum, mostly refugees from the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Sri
Lanka, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, China and
Pakistan, according to the Home Office.

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