On Saturday 29th January, dozens of migrants, refugees, community members, and people seeking asylum came together to remember. To remember the lives lost through the cruel, racist, and hostile asylum system in the UK and to steel ourselves for the fight to come — an essential fight for justice, accountability and change. 

Organisers from across Glasgow arrived at George Square to mark the addition of a memorial bench honouring the lives of those lost in the hostile environment. We were joined by locals from the southside who marched up from Kenmure street, the site of a local anti-raids resistance in 2021, and were joined by members of Glasgow Southside Against the Nationality and Borders Bill. 

This bench represents a public and permanent marker of our loss as a community. It is also a beacon of hope. Hope that we can come together and demand the changes required to keep us safe. As we gathered together, the bench was covered in colourful scarves representing the diversity of our movement. 

Singers from the Joyous Choir of Maryhill Integration Network performed before we heard directly from those most impacted by ongoing hotel detention and the cruelty of the hostile environment. 

We continue to call for our experience to be thoroughly investigated—independently, publicly and transparently. We will not stand for this brutal and inhumane treatment. 

As we continue to resist the expansion of hotel detention we’re faced with persistent lack of action from the Scottish Government. We are sick and tired of being told that asylum policy is not devolved therefore our care, wellbeing, dignity and quality of life are not matters for the Scottish Government. We are sick and tired of watching authorities passing the buck. We are sick and tired of falling into the cracks. 

Not only does the UK Government refuse to take accountability for the harm they have caused, they are expanding the programme to other local authorities in Scotland. The Home Office’s private contractor, The Mears Group, is now procuring institutional shared accommodations in Aberdeen, Perth, Falkirk and East Kibride and sending people seeking asylum to those cities. They do this without consent from local authorities. 

The Home Office and its contractors are in denial. They are tasked with safeguarding and protecting the voiceless and vulnerable and they fail on every front. Instead of supplying dignified accommodation and support they continue to grossly violate people’s human rights. Because of them, people have died and people are suffering. They don’t deserve it — no one does. With music, dance, poetry, and speeches, we gathered together and we will continue to fight together for justice, accountability, and change.