Chamber and committees

I echo Jackson Carlaw’s fine tribute to the late Hanzala Malik, who I greatly enjoyed working with, as a fellow representative of Glasgow. I pay particular tribute to him for his founding of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, of which I am a trustee, and which does great cross-party work to protect Glasgow’s built heritage. I wanted to put that on the record.

I recognise the huge transformation that Scottish Canals has achieved, particularly in the Glasgow canal section of the Forth and Clyde canal. Does the cabinet secretary recognise that a large part of that was down to the structure of Scottish Canals as a public corporation and that changing it recently into a non-departmental public body has placed fiscal constraints on it that might challenge its ability to do those more entrepreneurial activities? Maybe we need to look again at the structure of the public corporation.

To ask the First Minister what urgent steps are being taken to address reports of a mental health crisis with an increase in calls to the NHS 24 mental health hub. (S6F-02713)

The member is making an excellent speech. In America, in the 1970s, it was recognised that banks would withdraw from the poorest and most rural communities in a practice known as redlining. At the time, the Carter Administration introduced the Community Reinvestment Act, which enabled banks to be forced to pay into supporting community co-operatives and community banking services. Does the member feel that similar provision is needed in this country to ensure that we maintain the footprint of banking services across the country?

What Mr Doris has proposed is not unreasonable in the slightest; in fact, I would be inclined to support his suggestion. However, the situation will not be helped at all by the Scottish Government’s recent announcement that it will cut the capital budget for housing and seriously constrain council budgets, which means that councils’ ability to manage the transitions will be seriously harmed. We need to seriously address that issue, and the Scottish Government should take responsibility for such decisions.

The Home Office keeps family members who have been separated in the desperation of conflict apart and wondering whether they will ever be reunited. I will raise a particular case that has been brought to my attention recently, which involves the on-going plight of Kaltouma Haroun Ibrahim. Mrs Ibrahim is a much-loved member of the Gorbals parish church in Glasgow. She studies English at Anniesland college and works part time with disabled children for Glasgow City Council.

In 2014, alongside her husband and five children, Mrs Ibrahim boarded a boat in Libya that was bound for Italy after fleeing war-torn Sudan. Tragically, the boat sank and two of her children, Mohammed and Faisal, drowned. She was separated from her three surviving children and her husband in the aftermath of the tragedy and, after being forced to give up her search to find her family, she returned to her birthplace of Chad. However, Chad is terrorised by the violent Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and she was again forced to flee, to France and then on to London, claiming asylum there in 2016. Mrs Ibrahim moved to Glasgow in 2017 and secured refugee status in 2019.

Thanks to a humanitarian charity, Mrs Ibrahim managed to track down her husband and teenage children, who are living in war-torn Sudan. About 15 months ago, her lawyer submitted the required paperwork to the Home Office so that her family could join her in Glasgow. Within that time, horrifically, her 13-year-old daughter, Safa, perished in a rocket attack near her home in Khartoum.

The situation that Mrs Ibrahim and her family are in is deeply distressing, as I am sure all members will agree. It is astonishing that it should take so long to process such a case. I therefore ask whether the minister would be willing, on behalf of Mrs Ibrahim in Glasgow, to take direct action and make representations on behalf of the Scottish Government to the UK Government, so that we can end a decade of torment and tragedy and reunite what remains of that shattered family.

As the Conservative UK Government descends into electoral oblivion, it has resorted to ever more desperate acts, most notably its cynical project to make the asylum system as inhumane as possible by shipping off to Rwanda people who are seeking safety from horrendous situations such as war and persecution. That has been not only an appalling waste of public money but a waste of life. Three quarters of asylum claims are granted at the initial decision, and more than half of appeals are successful, which means that almost nine out of every 10 people seeking asylum in Britain end up being granted refugee status.

The UK Government has already paid £140 million to Rwanda, yet not a single asylum seeker has been sent there because, in November, the Supreme Court—thankfully—ruled the policy unlawful. However, the public funds that have been wasted on that atrocious scheme work out at £1,500 for each of the 93,296 people who sought asylum in the UK in the past 12 months. Just think what we could have done with that money instead.

The eccentric and unlawful Rwanda gimmick is just one element of the cruel Tory asylum policy, which strips people of all hope and humanity when they need it most. We just have to look at the conditions on the Bibby Stockholm barge to see the aim of the UK Government’s asylum policy. It demonstrates nothing but hostility to people who we should be opening our arms to. Those asylum seekers, who are banned from working to pay for their own lodgings and are instead housed in barges and hotels, do not feel safe. Where is the empathy in forcing people who have fled war and persecution into rooms without windows for long periods of time? It is no wonder that asylum seekers are at heightened risk of experiencing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The UK Government’s efforts to clear the asylum backlog while cutting the so-called move-on period, in which refugee status is granted and asylum accommodation provisions end, heighten the risk of mass homelessness and destitution for people seeking asylum in Scotland. We must do everything possible to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers do not end up homeless.

We must do all that is possible to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers do not end up homeless. That is why it is bitterly disappointing that the Ukrainian resettlement team in Glasgow is winding down its operations in order to merge with the general asylum and refugee team. The work of the specialist Ukrainian resettlement team is vital in ensuring refugees’ smooth transition from asylum accommodation. The merger will only increase the chance of Ukrainian refugees slipping through the cracks and ending up without a roof over their heads.

The Scottish Government promised a warm welcome for all Ukrainian refugees but, with homelessness rates higher among Ukrainians than among the wider population, it is clear that it has fallen short of its promise. The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee’s report on asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland suggested that the Scottish Government could do much more to ease the situation for them. The decision to introduce concessionary bus travel for asylum seekers is welcome, but other practical improvements must be explored.

On the point about funding, the member will recognise the immense public goodwill for hospice care across Scotland. That was exemplified by the efforts to rebuild the Marie Curie hospice in Glasgow, which raised £16 million around 10 years ago, more than half of which was from readers of the Evening Times. That shows the level of public goodwill to support hospices, but, as the member says, with increasing demand, that kind of fundraising is not sustainable to grow the capacity that we need. The state needs to intervene.

The disparity between income deciles on breastfeeding rates is a matter of great concern. Will the minister consider enhancing support for general practitioner surgeries, particularly around aspects such as community link workers and connections with charities such as Home-Start UK, to further enhance the promotion of breastfeeding in the most deprived communities?

An evaluation of Glasgow’s diamorphine-assisted treatment service pilot found that people who engaged with the service decreased heroin use and experienced improvements in their overall health and wellbeing. Those are very positive signs. The evidence shows that diamorphine-assisted treatment works, but the Glasgow service has helped just 30 people since it was launched in 2019, which is a very restricted capacity. What is the Scottish Government doing to increase that capacity so that more people with complex needs who use drugs can access the treatment, in line with MAT standard 2, on choice?

I am afraid that I do not have time to address that point in detail with Bob Doris, but that is a fine example of the haphazard approach to planning. Although it is right and proper that capital is invested to transform void properties, the Balmore Road example shows that it risks coming at the expense of community cohesion, with a lot of complaints being raised locally about that if it is not done properly.

We will get resettlement right only if we increase housing stock at pace, bring unused properties back into use and build new social housing across the country. We owe it to the Ukrainian people, who have fled the most tragic of circumstances, to ensure that they do not end up without a roof over their heads and that we do so in the most constructive and cohesive way possible.