Britain treats asylum seekers like ANIMALS, so is it any surprise when they snap and behave like one?
The stabbing of six people by an asylum seeker in Glasgow has shed light on the dreadful conditions migrants are being forced to live in. Their desperate situation reflects very poorly on the UK government.
Badreddin Abadlla Adam was unknown until a few days ago.
Then the 28-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker flew into a wild rampage, stabbed six people, including a PC, and turned Glasgow city centre into a place of panic, before he was shot dead by armed police.
Now, he’s become a poster boy for anti-immigrant groups, held up as an example of why Britain needs to shut its borders to greedy, law-breaking foreigners who have no respect for the opportunity they’ve been afforded by the welcoming UK.
But the Glasgow incident is actually quite revealing in showing how the UK treats these people fleeing difficult circumstances in their own countries.
The consensus of opinion is that the attack was caused by a disagreement over noise. Badreddin, who was staying at the city’s Park Inn hotel, was outraged by someone in the next room who kept disturbing him. He snapped, brandished a knife and carried out his violent stabbing spree.
But while this may explain the circumstances of the attack, it’s far from the whole story.
Firstly, what was he doing living in a three-star hotel run by Radisson anyway?
The arrangement came via a scheme devised by Mears, the private firm awarded a £1billion contract from Britain’s Home Office to provide support to asylum seekers.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and lockdown was implemented, Mears opted to remove all asylum seekers from their serviced apartments in Glasgow and rehouse them in six hotels across the city.
That involved 500 people, as Glasgow is the UK’s largest dispersal area. With social distancing being a key part of the response to the virus, putting hundreds of people together raised question marks.
All asylum seekers had to go, including pregnant women and families. Some were later moved to more suitable accommodation, but only after several weeks.
With the exception of the new residents, the hotels were empty due to the lockdown. And as a requirement of being given a room, the asylum seekers were stripped of their £35 weekly benefit.
The hotels also provided three meals a day.
On this basis, things may not appear too bad. However, the first warning that all was not well came last month when a Syrian man, Adnan Olbeh, was found dead in his room at McLays Guest House in the city.
One of his friends told how the man had begun suffering flashbacks to torture that he had endured back home. Another worried friend even called an ambulance to take him to hospital the week before, where he was given medication and discharged.
Also on rt.com This illegal migrants scandal makes a mockery of ‘Take Back Control’. Officials haven’t estimated how many there are for 15 YEARSAfter some digging, campaigners and charity workers discovered that Olbeh’s situation had wrecked his mental health.
It emerged that the asylum seekers had been given less than an hour’s notice before they were transported to the hotels.
They also were increasingly panicked about contracting Covid-19, with many having to use shared bathrooms.
Banned from working, they had no money to buy personal items like feminine hygiene products, phone credit, snacks or toiletries.
There were claims of being served sub-standard food – which they must eat as a group at designated times – with reports of bread covered in mould and uncooked pasta. One group even went on a hunger strike.
So we have to ask ourselves, if people are refusing to eat and being found dead in hotel rooms, are they being treated correctly?
It appears that Adnan was worried about whether his case to stay would be approved, and he had no way to contact his lawyer.
One of the other asylum seekers told the National newspaper on 9 June: “We have been here two months, suffering. They took us from where we were living, put us in this place and don’t serve us proper food. I can’t understand all this going on.”
Even earlier in mid-May, Yvonne Blake, co-founder of Migrant Organising for Rights and Empowerment, commented, “Imagine being displaced again from a place you call home. We are talking about people who fled from war, experienced famine, human trafficking; it would obviously affect their mental health. This system is looking down on these people. They treat them like commodities.”
Several weeks later, things got too much for Badreddin.
As well as all the other pressures, his room in the Park Inn received no sunlight, with the only window facing a brick wall.
A young man trying to remain in the UK was essentially living in a prison, in a city shut down and deserted.
Every day when he woke up, what life or stimulation was there? There was no money and no job, plus no updates on his case.
He and others were left to rot, despite the repeated warnings from those who could see what was brewing.
If you treat someone like an animal, they are going to behave like one.
No, it’s not acceptable to attack others with a knife. But it’s also not acceptable to herd helpless individuals around like cattle.
Mears should hang its head in shame, as it has the blood of two dead asylum seekers on its greedy, profit-driven hands.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has questions to answer too.
Patel was born to Hindu immigrants who fled murdering dictator Idi Amin in Uganda. They arrived in the UK to open a newsagent and better themselves, just like the 500 poor souls she’s supposed to be caring for in Glasgow.
They are her department’s responsibility, but in the aftermath of Badreddin’s rampage, her statement read: “Accommodation has been allocated in this particular way because of the Covid-19 crisis, so of course, we constantly review the methods around asylum, the accommodation, the provision, the support. All of which is in line with law.”
Well, then the law is morally wrong and we all know it.
The bosses at Mears, Patel and anyone else who fails to admit that are part of the problem.
After all, how you treat those in need says a lot more than how you treat everyone else.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
