A private firm that houses asylum seekers will stop making them wear coloured wristbands after the policy was criticised.
Clearsprings Ready Homes, which has a contract with the Home Office to accommodate newly arrived asylum seekers in Cardiff, defended the used of the wristbands but said it was looking at alternative ways of managing “the fair provision of support”.
Jo Stevens, the shadow justice minister and Labour MP for Cardiff Central, had said earlier that she had “grave concerns” about the practice at Lynx House in Cardiff.
Forcing asylum seekers, who cannot work and are not given money, to wear the wristbands in Cardiff echoes the recent “red door” controversy in Middlesbrough, when refugees complained that having their doors painted red by G4S, the private firm contracted to house them, made them easy targets for abuse.
The first minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, said he was appalled at the use of wristbands.
“This is completely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for as a nation,” he said. “My officials had been in touch with Clearsprings about this issue and I expect the Home Office to take action on this immediately. I will be contacting them today to register our serious concerns.”
In a statement on Monday, Clearsprings Ready Homes said: “Asylum seekers who spend their initial few weeks at our full-board accommodation in Cardiff have been provided with wristbands since May 2015 to ensure they receive the services they are entitled to and to make sure those more vulnerable asylum seekers have access to their specific requirements.
“As in numerous such establishments where large numbers of people are being provided with services, wristbands are considered to be one of the most reliable and effective ways of guaranteeing delivery. We are always reviewing the way we supply our services and have decided to cease the use of wristbands as of Monday 25 January and will look for an alternative way of managing the fair provision of support.”
The Guardian understands that asylum seekers were required to show wrist bands to receive the evening meal on Monday.
The firm said it had been providing such services to the Home Office for 15 years and was “grateful for feedback to help improve the safety and effectiveness of their services”.
Stevens welcomed the move but said serious questions about the policy remained unanswered by the Home Office.
She praised the Guardian for raising the issue, and said that following her intervention and pressing from “local asylum seeker groups ... we have secured an end to this crass and unnecessary wristband policy”.
“However, there remain serious questions which I’m raising with the Home Office minister about how this policy was allowed to operate in the first place and whether it is operating elsewhere in other Home office temporary accommodation units.”Stevens has been attempting to ask an urgent question in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon and has been contacting the whips’ office. Her intervention followed a Guardian report on Sunday that asylum seekers housed by Clearsprings had been told to wear the wristbands at all times or they would not be fed.
It is believed Clearsprings will switch to a temporary manual system for identifying residents entitled to meals. Photo ID cards would be introduced within the next few weeks.
Stevens said on Sunday: “The reported abuse is completely unrepresentative of the kindness and generosity that my constituents and people across the whole of Cardiff have shown to asylum seekers and refugees over a long period of time.”
She said she would petition in parliament for an investigation into why the practice had been permitted.
Eric Ngalle, 36, spent a month in Lynx House, where initial accommodation is provided for asylum seekers, before he was granted refugee status in November 2015. He is now working as a writer and making a theatre production with the Arts Council of Wales.
“My time in Lynx House was one of the most horrible experiences in my life. I hated wearing the wristbands and sometimes refused to wear them and was turned away from food,” he said.
“If we refused to wear the wristbands we were told we would be reported to the Home Office. Some staff implemented this policy in a more drastic way than others. I made a complaint about the wristbands to Clearsprings but nothing was done. We had to walk from accommodation about 10 minutes away to Lynx House to get food and sometimes when we were walking down the street with our wristbands showing.
“On the road we had to walk down there is often heavy traffic. Sometimes drivers would see our wristbands, start honking their horns and shout out of the window, ‘Go back to your country.’ Some people made terrible remarks to us.
“If you take off the wristband you can’t reseal it back on to your wrist so if you want to eat you have to wear it all the time. Labelling them on a daily basis with silver, red or blue tags only serves as a reminder that they are still wearing the garments of an outcast.”
Maher, 41, who recently stayed at Lynx House but has now been granted refugee status, said he was angry about being forced to wear the wristband.
“When you walk down the street all the local people who see this brightly coloured band know who we are and where we live,” he said. “We feel we are not equal with this community. All the time I tried to hide the band so people could not see it.”
Asylum seekers in the UK are not allowed to work or claim mainstream benefits. Some receive a small amount of money or an Azure card to use in supermarkets.
But newly arrived asylum seekers placed in what is known as initial accommodation by the Home Office receive neither money nor an Azure card. They are placed in hotel-style accommodation and given three basic meals a day.
Mogdad Abdeen, 24, a human rights activist from Sudan, spent three months in Lynx House at the end of last year. He has been moved to different accommodation in Cardiff while he waits for a decision on his claim.
“This wristband is discrimination, clear and simple. No band, no food. We are made to feel that we are second-class humans. People in Lynx House are scared of meeting new people in case they see the wristband and give them problems.
“Sometimes when we are standing outside Lynx House queueing for food people shout out of their car windows ‘refugee, refugee’. When we complain about the wristbands nobody listens to us.”
When some of the occupants of Lynx House were asked if they were willing to be identified, all refused, saying they were scared they might be punished for speaking out. Instead they agreed to have their hands photographed wearing the bands.
Chloe Marong, the coordinator of the Trinity Centre in Cardiff, which supports asylum seekers and refugees, has expressed concern about the wristbands.
“We have raised concerns about these wristbands with the Home Office and Clearsprings but so far nothing has been done. These wristbands mark asylum seekers out and further stigmatises them in an already very hostile environment,” she said.
Adam Hundt of Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors said: “Concerns about this practice have been raised with us and we have been looking at it. Asylum seekers are a very scared and vulnerable group and the last thing they want to do is stand out from the crowd.
“In some areas it can be dangerous for them to do so, so it is easy to understand how asylum seekers feel they are being branded with these brightly coloured wristbands which draw unwelcome attention to them and make them feel ashamed. It is particularly concerning that wearing the wristbands is linked to whether or not they get food or go hungry. It should be possible to come up with a system to ensure that people are fed without publicly humiliating them and undermining race relations.”