An Afghan refugee has spent 82 weeks in a ‘bridging hotel’ as they await permanent housing in Scotland, figures have revealed.
Freedom of information data revealed by the Scottish Liberal Democrats showed one current refugee has waited 575 days in temporary accommodation.
Meanwhile, the Home Office figures show the average wait for permanent housing is 331 days, or 47 weeks, for Afghan refugees in Scotland.
The temporary accommodation is known as a ‘bridging hotel’ procured by the Home Office to house refugees from Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul in 2021.
READ MORE: Asylum seekers will be expected to share hotel rooms
The Home Office states the hotels are not intended to be permanent solutions to housing.
Scottish Liberal Democrat MP, Alistair Carmichael, who is his party’s home affairs spokesman, urged the UK Government to scrap its Illegal Migration Bill – which seeks to deter refugees travelling to the UK through unsafe routes – and instead prioritise funding an adequate resettlement scheme.
The proposed legislation has come under intense scrutiny amid plans for individuals who come to the UK illegally to be removed to their own country or a safe third-party country such as Rwanda until an asylum claim is approved.
Mr Carmichael, the MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: “The UK Government’s asylum policy is a masterclass in chaos.
“As if their Illegal Migration Bill wasn’t bad enough, these figures show that the Conservatives are leaving too many in a state of uncertainty.
“People need to know what comes next, so it’s entirely unreasonable to expect them to be living out of suitcases for any lengthy period of time, worried where and when the next roof will be.
READ MORE: Experts to give evidence on asylum integration in Glasgow
“Scottish Liberal Democrats are demanding that the Government immediately scrap the callous Illegal Migration Bill and focus instead on providing a properly funded refugee resettlement scheme.
“This will give people the confidence and certainty they need to build a new life far from home.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel