Gay asylum seeker made to share a room with a former Taliban militant
A gay asylum seeker is forced to share a room with a former member of the Taliban – who was taught that homosexuals must be killed.
The claims emerged during a Westminster Hall debate on conditions for refugees and asylum seekers.
Labour’s Andy McDonald, the MP for Middlesbrough, told MPs that a private contractor had housed the boy in a single bedroom with the jihadi. The Taliban enforced the death penalty for homosexuality while in power in Afghanistan.
Mr McDonald told MPs he was “amazed” to find out that “different people can be put into a single bedroom quite inappropriately.”
He said: “A young man in my community who is gay and who has come to this country is having to share a bedroom with somebody who was once a member of the Taliban – an utterly ridiculous state of affairs.”
Middlesbrough was previously the centre of a scandal after it emerged the doors of houses containing asylum seekers were being painted red.
Labour MP Stephen Doughty, who was leading the debate, replied: “I find that absolutely extraordinary; my hon. Friend gives a shocking example.
“As a gay MP myself, I would find it horrendous to be placed in accommodation with somebody who potentially had persecuted me or potentially would persecute me.
“However, that is the reality of many people’s experience—they find themselves in unsuitable accommodation.
“Yesterday in the Home Affairs Committee, we heard one example of 11 people being crowded into a room, and I have heard examples of individuals being placed with people who allegedly may have persecuted them in the past. Some very serious concerns are being raised.”
Andy McDonald told the Independent newspaper: “I have met the young man personally, through friends who offered him support and invited him into their home. He is very reluctant to go back to the other property, because he knows his roommate’s history.
“There have been many other instances where people who shouldn’t have to share rooms are being made to.
“Another man, a former Muslim, has converted to Christianity and is worried about sharing a room, because apostasy is not welcomed.
“Nothing has happened and we hope nothing will, but it’s that sort of thoughtlessness that characterises the way these contracts are run.”
