Asylum seekers and beds have been moved out of an accommodation centre in Cardiff following concerns revealed by the Guardian about serious overcrowding.
Cardiff council said this week that its environmental health inspectors were planning an urgent inspection of Lynx House, where asylum seekers have said some rooms had 11 people sleeping in them.
One asylum seeker said: “After the Guardian article about overcrowding they started making changes. Beds have been removed from some of the most overcrowded rooms. Where there were 11 beds now there are six. In the rooms that had six beds in them before, now there are four beds.”
He said some asylum seekers had been moved out of the overcrowded rooms into alternative accommodation elsewhere in Cardiff and in London.
Last Sunday the Guardian reported that the Home Office subcontractor managing the accommodation was issuing its residents with brightly coloured wristbands that had to be displayed to get food. Some of the asylum seekers expressed fears that they were easily identifiable as a result of wearing the wristbands, and said they had experienced harassment and racist abuse.
Within hours of the revelations, Clearsprings Ready Homes announced it was ending the coloured wristband system with immediate effect. Notices have gone up in Lynx House saying that Home Office ID cards must now be shown in exchange for food.
The Guardian has learned that the Home Office sent inspectors to Lynx House on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The removal of people and beds began after the inspection.
The MP for Cardiff Central, Jo Stevens, said: “I have been informed by Clearsprings Ready Homes that some people have been moved to other accommodation elsewhere in Cardiff and some have been moved to London. When I visited Lynx House recently I was told that the numbers of people accommodated there had increased a lot. All of this comes back to the Home Office. They have the ability and the power to make changes but they are not doing so at the moment.”
Video footage from inside Lynx House showed bunk beds squeezed together, with bags and belongings piled up in the limited remaining space. Now the same room has been photographed again with more space in it.
Lynx House is a Home Office initial accommodation facility where newly arrived asylum seekers are placed. They do not receive money or a card to be used in supermarkets but instead are provided with three basic meals a day.
At other initial accommodation facilities used by the Home Office, such as Heathrow Lodge near Heathrow airport, and Brigstock House and Barry House in south London, many of the rooms have two beds in them. Some of the asylum seekers at Lynx House who have spent time in some of these facilities say the conditions there are better than at Lynx House.
Clearsprings did not respond to requests for comment. A Home Office spokesman said: “We take every effort to inspect all asylum accommodation on a regular basis to ensure that it meets the required standard and asylum seekers are treated with respect.
“Where a contractor is found to be falling short of these standards, we work with them to ensure issues are quickly addressed and when they are not we can and do impose sanctions.”
