Question and Answer Session: Refugees in London (Supplementary) [7]

Hannah Boylan (Head of Migration, Greater London Authority): Thank you. The Migrant Londoners 
Hub includes a huge range of information. Given the Home Office has quite a significant contract with 
Migrant Help we have decided to signpost that service. It is the first point of call that asylum seekers should 
go to at least to log an issue. That said, we have also developed a large service map. A survey went out to the 
full civil society sector in London to collect advice and support organisations. We also know that Migrant Help 
will likely signpost people on to many of those services, but at least it gives another option for asylum seekers 
to have agency to find some of those organisations to directly refer themselves.
Simultaneously, we have been escalating concerns around the Migrant Help contract and its ability to deliver. 
We have done that through the London Strategic Migration Partnership (LSMP) with Migrant Help around the 
table there. We have got two subgroups. One is the oversight group that I have already mentioned, which is 
looking at a fair share approach to this work. It is also an accountability body. We have also got a civil society 
forum as well, where we bring dozens of organisations around the table, where they can directly escalate those 
concerns with us. We can spot patterns and then we can look at solutions for that at a strategic level with 
Migrant Help, Clearsprings and the Home Office as well.
Siân Berry AM: We are hearing again the fact that this is quite atomised and bitty. We are talking about 
people who are new to this country and having to navigate all this is really difficult. You just mentioned the 
Migrant Help contract being an issue. Are you making proposals to bring that more under London’s wing so 
you can have that joined-up, integrated service that Enver [Solomon] was talking about?
Hannah Boylan (Head of Migration, Greater London Authority): That is not a proposal that we have 
developed. I think we would need a little bit more political guidance if that is something we want to look into. 
That said, the Mayor has invested a huge amount in advice and support funding for the broader migrant 
sector, for refugees and asylum seekers as well. We have also, through the Asylum Welcome programme, 
supported local authorities to maximise the income that they get from the Home Office to support asylum 
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seekers, looking at remodelling the ways that they design their services to ensure that asylum seekers can 
access them.
Siân Berry AM: OK, thank you. We will talk more about that, I am sure. Then a question to Tom Copley, the 
Deputy Mayor. This is about deaths in asylum seeker accommodation. We know that across the country, 
between 2016 and 2022, there were 140 deaths in such housing, but this data is being collected by the Asylum 
Seeker Memorial Project and not by the Home Office. We do not know the causes, but we can imagine that 
poor housing conditions and the kinds of stresses and difficulties accessing medical support are likely to be 
factors. It is hard to imagine being a refugee, reaching a safe country, only to then to die in asylum 
accommodation while waiting on the decision. Is that work you are looking at? Do you know how many 
people living in contingency accommodation in London have died? If not, can you get that information from 
the Home Office, share it with us and look into the causes so we can start addressing this?
Tom Copley (Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development): Yes, it is an absolute tragedy, 
as you say. I do not have the information to hand. If we have the information or we can obtain the 
information, then I will get it to you post the meeting.
Siân Berry AM: Excellent, thank you very much. Yes, we must be looking at this. It is too awful that this is 
happening. Thank you. That is the end of my questions.
Dr Onkar Sahota AM (Deputy Chair in the Chair): Thank you. Next is Assembly Member Anne Clarke