CSO3 said that the Housing Executive did not give due consideration to the nature of particular areas when making offers of housing, effectively making offers that it would be impossible for refugees to accept: “… they will give you an offer in this area, and if you refuse, it’s like you’re refusing the offer, but they know given this place, if you take this house, you’re not going to spend six months there, you will be kicked out. So they don’t take on board this type of issue when they are allocating accommodation” (CSO3). PB7 offered a different view and said that the Housing Executive would consider issues of safety as part of the housing allocation process: “… for this particular cohort of people [refugees] we have to put them somewhere that’s safe. So there’s a conversation that the housing executive will have with them about ‘where is it safe for you to go’” (PB7). PB4 said that there was a need to avoid the perception of some areas being “ no go areas” while ensuring people’s safety: “…[we] certainly [are] not wanting to create no go areas, but at the same time you’re still very conscious of people’s safety and security and the local staff on the ground across all our offices would have that knowledge of those areas ” (PB4). PB4 noted that in addition to being sensitive about the location of allocations, there were also initiatives to reduce community tensions by explaining how the housing system works and that no preferential treatment is given: “We obviously try to do a bit of myth busting. We have a strong piece of work on other parts of the organisation around community cohesion, community relations, and obviously we’re quite sensitive around that… I think there is a sense for some communities that people were getting preferential treatment and the reality is they’re not” (PB4). The knock on effect of housing moves on access to other devolved services The lack of housing in Northern Ireland and the consequent need for newly recognised refugees to be moved away from areas in which they had begun to settle (sometimes on several occasions) was identified as a critical issue by W1 participants, particularly since August 2023 when the Home Office speeded up its decision-making to reduce the asylum backlog. Once refugee status was given, people could be housed in new areas and be taken away from communities, services, and support structures. W3 participants noted that this had knock on effects on access to healthcare and education and stressed that many access barriers and issues are rooted in housing not being available in areas where people want to live and people being moved multiple times. PB5 summarized the situation as follows: “ Everything is accommodation driven, and the rest of us have to respond to that because the very first and basic need of a family is that they have a roof over their head” (PB5).
The unsuitability of available housing and temporary accommodation provision A number of participants raised concerns that temporary accommodation being used as a result of the housing shortage was often unsuitable and that when offers of permanent housing were made these were often inappropriate as well. CSO2 said that non- standard accommodation in hotels presented problems for people in terms of the lack of facilities available and its location: “there’s no cooking, is the big thing, there’s nowhere to cook and nowhere to store food, it’s a room. I mean, there’s, like, one example is by the international airport which is, you know, great if you have an early morning flight but less great if you have to live there. And you know, the only place to shop is to go into the airport and, you know, it’s not great” (CSO 2). CSO4 made a similar point, noting that the absence of cooking facilities presented particularly acute problems for asylum seekers and refugees compared to other homeless people: “The statutory obligation is provide accommodation, but what it doesn’t consider is where’s someone going to cook for a large family in the middle of nowhere and you can’t even go out to get food and there’s no cooking facilities. So, I mean, it’s the same for anybody who is from here as well, but the difference being there’s no networks to rely upon to say, ‘can you bring some food, can I cook at your house’ and such” (CSO4). CSO6 pointed out that the problem was particularly acute in rural areas: “We’re getting mothers coming with three or four children and staying in a small hotel room in the middle of nowhere. They have no car, they will have to walk perhaps half a mile to get a bus on a main road. They can’t get food to feed a family and it’s not easy because they can’t come into the town all of the time, they cannot afford to be buying in restaurants. And all they’re entitled to in the hotel is their breakfast, but they’re not allowed to cook in their bedrooms” (CSO6). In terms of offers of social housing, CSO3 said that there were particular areas where asylum seekers and refugees would not feel safe to be housed: “… there are some areas you’re not welcome, especially British areas are not welcoming to BAMEs [Black and Minority Ethnic people], end of story. If you go the social housing there, they will make sure you don’t… they will put signs in front of your house to say we don’t want black, we don’t want Irish” (CSO3). CSO2 noted that hate crime was a significant issue for refugees and that the response from the Housing Executive was to “move the victim”: “… a number of refugees are subject to hate crime within their housing executive accommodation and the term here is you’re ‘put out’ of your accommodation… I was totally shocked that in these instances, the statutory response is more usually to just lift the victim out and place them somewhere else. Rather than to, kind of, think well who’s the perpetrator, let’s go after the perpetrator. And that’s, you know, it’s, kind of, a legacy of the troubles… there’s always a concern, you know, is this just a couple of, you know, teenagers throwing bricks or is there something more sinister behind it and rather than take any risks you move the victim. But then from a victim’s perspective, you know, then if they’ve kids in school, you know, all of that. So, it’s very very disruptive for the victims of such hate crime” (CSO2).
36 | Access to Public Services and Access to Justice for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Northern Ireland
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