EXCLUSIVE: Calls are growing for a fairer geographical spread on helping asylum seekers.
Stop the far right demonstrators hold a rally outside the Watermill Hotel in support of refugees on August 09, 2024 in Paisley, Scotland. (Image: Getty Images)
Over a third of council areas are not housing any asylum seekers, piling pressure on cash-strapped Glasgow to provide a safe haven.
A tiny amount of homes have also been provided in Edinburgh compared to Scotland’s biggest city.
The disparities have fuelled calls for Mears, the company used by the UK Government to house asylum seekers, to ensure a fairer geographical spread.
Glasgow was for decades the only city north of the border to participate in the Home Office dispersal scheme.
The policy has now been rolled out to other council areas and Mears, not the local authorities, is responsible for securing accommodation.
New figures from the House of Commons show that Glasgow, as of June this year, continues to do the heavy lifting on helping asylum seekers.
For every 10,000 people, Glasgow is housing 58 asylum seekers, by far the largest amount of any council area.
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Aberdeen, which has seen protests against asylum hotels, is in joint second place on 19 alongside Inverclyde.
Perth and Kinross, another council to have witnessed clashes over hotels, stands at 13 per 10,0000 people, while the figure in Dundee is 10.
However, the number for larger council areas like Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire is three, two and four respectively.
The figure for twelve council areas as of June – including Fife, Highland, Stirling and East Dunbartonshire – was zero.
Bill Kidd, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Anniesland and a supporter of Glasgow’s role in the dispersal scheme, said:
“It does make logical sense that the whole country shares responsibility for dispersal. Glasgow has taken responsibility but this has to be evened out.”
He added: “Mears should be talking to people in different council areas.”
Susan Aitken, the SNP leader of Glasgow council, told the Record last week: “I would like to see other local authorities step up more.
“I would like to see the spread of asylum seekers and then subsequently refugees across Scotland more evenly.”
She has also blasted the impact of the Home Office policy of trying to empty the asylum hotels quickly
She said this approach is creating a problem of refugee homelessness in Glasgow and a £66m black hole for the council.
The number of housed asylum seekers per 10,000 population.
An Edinburgh council source said: “Asylum accommodation is the responsibility of the Home Office and its contracted accommodation provider for Scotland, Mears Group. “
“The numbers hosted in a local authority area depend entirely on how much accommodation the Home Office, via Mears, is able to procure.
“The figures in this document also don’t show people accommodated under humanitarian schemes, for example Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria.”
The House of Commons figures also show that Scotland houses 11 asylum seekers for every 10,0000 people in the country.
This is fewer than the East Midlands, London, the North East, the North West, Northern Ireland, West Midlands and Yorkshire/The Humber.
Susan Aitken photographed in the Reach office speaking on Planet Holyrood. Pic by Victoria Stewart, Reach Plc Staff
Labour MSP Paul Sweeney said the “fundamental issue” is a “chronic underinvestment” in housing by the SNP Government.
“They cannot shirk their own responsibilities here. The lack of housing supply has been inadvertently compounded by more progressive homelessness legislation in Scotland, which has no ‘priority need’ test and a legal right to housing for all unintentionally homeless households.
“So Glasgow is also witnessing a considerable increase in the number of refugees granted leave to remain elsewhere in the UK, who are then travelling to the city to make an application for homelessness assistance.
“When I asked the SNP housing minister last week if she would temporarily review these rules in light of the immediate housing pressure it was creating in Glasgow, she refused to do so, leaving the city facing an unplanned overspend of £66m on refugee housing next year.
“This is obviously unsustainable but it is something a city the size of Glasgow should be able to build its way out of with a proper plan and resources.”
Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “Scotland has a long and proud history of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees, with Glasgow in particular playing a key role.
“It has meant that the city has built strong support networks and communities for people who make it their home.
“The shift to national dispersion can be made to work, but at the moment the UK Government is failing to back it up with infrastructure and services.
“Regardless of where people are living they should be supported, but the Home Office is more interested in demonising them and making their lives even harder.
“People deserve the right to live in safe and stable accommodation and to work freely rather than being tied up for years in a hostile system that is designed to humiliate them.”
A spokesperson for Mears said of the figures: “This is due to a long term issue that until recently, Glasgow was the only local authority in Scotland that participated in the Home Office’s approach to dispersal of asylum seekers across the UK. In late 2024 agreement was reached with the Home Office and COSLA for wider dispersal across Scotland.
“Since then, Mears has developed partnership working with councils across Scotland and we are now providing accommodation in 22 local authority areas as we work towards more even dispersal of asylum seekers and reduce the reliance on Glasgow.”
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