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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Craig Williams & Gemma Ryder

Asylum seeker 'asked for help 72 times' before pandemic stabbing rampage at Glasgow hotel

An asylum seeker who went on a terrifying rampage stabbing six people in a Glasgow hotel made contact with the Home Office and other organisations more than 70 times before the attack.

Badreddin Abadlla Adam was one of hundreds of refugees who were moved from self-contained accommodation to hotels during the pandemic.

A report leaked to the BBC says the 28-year-old from Sudan contacted the Home Office, contractors Mears and Migrant Help a total of 72 times about his health and accommodation in the period leading up to the attack.

Adam knifed six people, including a police officer, in the Park Inn hotel on West George Street before being shot dead by an armed response unit on June 26, 2020.

Now an internal Home Office evaluation said his contact with the three organisations "should have acted as a warning", Glasgow Live reports.

Police officers at the scene of the Glasgow Park Inn Hotel stabbings, which took place on June 26, 2020. ( (Jeff J Mitchell/ Getty Images)

The review, which was leaked to the BBC, also found that Adam had complained to staff in the hotel and was in touch with the Home Office about an assisted voluntary return to his home country.

It said the enquiries individually and cumulatively were "not indicative of any elevated risk" but the number of times he was in contact "should have acted as a warning" and there was "no joined up view".

Several recommendations were made by the review, including developing a system to identify patterns of contact that may cause concern and ensuring hotel staff are given mental health awareness and de-escalation training.

The review said the rationale for moving asylum seekers who had not been classed as vulnerable into hotels appeared sound.

But it said the combined impact of previous trauma, being accommodated long term in hotels and the restrictions had "a significant impact" on their wellbeing, the BBC reports.

Campaign groups such as Positive Action in Housing criticised the decision to move refugees from self-contained accommodation to hotels such as the Park Inn during the pandemic.

On the anniversary of the attacks in June last year, campaigners took to George Square to call for an inquiry into the Park Inn hotel stabbings, which they say happened "as a direct result of the dysfunctional UK asylum support and accommodation system".

A Home Office spokesman told the BBC: "Due to the pandemic the Home Office had to use an unprecedented number of hotels for asylum seekers, including in Glasgow.

"The use of hotels is unacceptable and we are working hard to find appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers but local authorities must do all they can to help house people permanently.

"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.

"The Home Office has completed the majority of recommendations in the review which found that hotels in Glasgow were of a good standard, clean and well maintained.

"Our new plan for immigration, which is going through Parliament now, will fix the broken asylum system, enabling us to grant protection to those entitled to it and to remove those with no right to be here more quickly."

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