“If I put my feet down from the bed, I’m stepping into the kitchen – this is how small it is. The baby cannot play, the baby cannot crawl.”
Since January 2021, Home Office accommodation provider Mears has been moving women who are seeking asylum and their babies out of settled accommodation into cramped one-room bedsits.
This new Mother and Baby Unit was opened in Glasgow and confines more than 20 women and their babies in tiny spaces with windows that barely open, with the cot just steps away from the cooker. These rooms have uncovered electrical sockets, no appropriate storage out of reach of little hands, and no protection between the room and potentially hazardous kitchen appliances.
This situation must change. Email your MSP to let them know you stand with these women and call for better living conditions. A room is not a home.
#FreedomToCrawl, a campaign run by The Roof Coalition, is asking politicians to act now – enough is enough. It’s unacceptable to place mothers and babies in rooms that are so small they are dangerous to the child.
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