Campaigning organisation Refugees for Justice called for a review in the wake of stabbings at the Park Inn hotel in Glasgow which was being used to house asylum seekers during lockdown in 2020.
On second anniversary of the incident, Refugees for Justice announced that it has commissioned an independent inquiry, which will be led by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.
The inquiry report published focused on events in Glasgow at the start of the first major Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when 321 people seeking asylum were moved from their homes into hotels by Home Office contractors.
Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, from Sudan, was shot dead by police after his knife attack at the Park Inn Hotel in Glasgow in June 2020, which injured six people including 42-year-old police constable David Whyte.
The Home Office said it has undertaken a number of “significant changes to keep asylum seekers safe” since the incident. The report also mentions the case of Adnan Elbi who died in one of the hotels in May 2020.
Baroness Kennedy said: “In the absence of a public inquiry, this independent Commission of Inquiry (the Inquiry) seeks to make sense of the decisions that led up to these events and to provide recommendations to improve provision of asylum accommodation and support and to stop future tragedies occurring.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Since this horrific incident we have undertaken a number of significant changes to keep asylum seekers safe, including how we, our contractors and charities spot vulnerable individuals and provide them with wraparound support and appropriate accommodation.
