Expert says refugees should be moved to 'des res' areas

Date: 11th June '01

Name: Lion Rampant

Country: Alba

Expert says refugees should be moved to 'des res' areas

John Staples - The Scotsman - 11 June 2001

ONE of the countrys top racism experts has reignited the asylum seekers issue by calling for them to be moved into middle class areas - and has offered a basement flat where he lives in order to lead by example.

Academic Alistair McIntosh attacked the Home Office and Scottish councils for fuelling violence in deprived areas of Glasgow by using them as "dumping grounds" for asylum seekers.

Mr McIntosh has informed his local authority, Fife Council, about an empty flat below his own in the coastal village of Kinghorn, near Kirkcaldy, which he feels should be used by a refugee family.

Mr McIntosh, a government adviser on race issues, invited further controversy by insisting that everyone is guilty of "innate racism" - a problem he said that had to be "confronted, challenged and defeated".

Mr McIntosh said: "Dumping asylum seekers in areas of social deprivation is the wrong decision. These areas have enough problems of their own.

"Asylum seekers need to be spread throughout Scottish society into the more des res areas - and it needs more of us who live in des res areas to stand up against racism. That is why I contacted my council offering the empty flat next to us."

Mr McIntosh is a fellow of the Centre of Human Ecology in Edinburgh, and last year published a major report into racism in Scotland for the Scottish parliament. He spoke yesterday following a spate of recent racist attacks on asylum seekers in Glasgow.

Around 3,000 of a total of 7,000 refugees have been moved to the city, and latest figures show that between April last year and January this year there were 67 reported racial incidents.

In April Palestinian brothers Haitham and Iyad Saada were treated in hospital for serious injuries following an attack by a mob in Sighthill.

Seven weeks ago an Iraqi Kurd, Habi Abbas, was stabbed in Red Road and just last week police questioned a six-year-old boy in Castlemilk for allegedly racially abusing two Afghani refugees.

Despite recent events Mr McIntosh said he believed refugees should continue to come to Scotland, but that more should be done to help them.

He said: "Scotland should be taking as many refugees as it can possibly absorb.

"The Home Office and councils have made some bad decisions by trying to focus asylum seekers into certain communities. It was bound to be asking for trouble."

The Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) yesterday said they supported Mr McIntoshs comments on standards of accommodation and added that asylum-seekers should have access to "the housing options of any other citizen".

A spokesman for the Home Office denied that asylum seekers were being deliberately dumped in poor areas. He added: "When we are procuring accommodation we have a legal obligation that providers acquire suitable properties in areas approved by the National Asylum Support Service. NASS has rejected and will continue to reject properties which are considered unsuitable."

Yesterday a spokesman for the Scottish Conservative Party gave the call to move asylum seekers into middle class areas a lukewarm response.

The spokesman added: "It is a fact that sufficient accommodation for 2,000 families can only be found in areas like Sighthill.

"We would question if the housing exists in what is termed middle class areas, but we would also question why so many families need to be housed in the first place."

Mr McIntoshs report to the Scottish parliament on racism in Scotland was praised last year as a seminal work. The report - Whos a Real Scot - was based on research by the Centre for Human Ecology.

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