Now on bbc news. Sam poling meets Men And Women who fled to scotland to escape danger, and investigates whether the current system of support for those Seeking Refuge in the uk is fit for purpose. They come to scotland in search of safety. Hello. Hello, everybody. How are you . My name is mohammed alosimi. So i will speak arabic sometimes, because, uh. My english is very weak. 0k. Sta rt. Ali speaks arabic. This is ali. Hes an Asylum Seeker living In Glasgow. Hes come here Seeking Refuge from war. His days are spent wandering the citys parks. I am garden now. Its beautiful garden. Yes, i stay here maybe two hours because, after, uh, i will go back, i go back to my home. For ali, that home is here mclays guest house. Room a3. The rooms small. Around 12 feet square. A tablet donated by a charity sits next to his bed. This is where he eats, where he sleeps and spends most of his time. Theres no fridge, so he keeps his food and his milk on the Windowsill Outside to keep them cold. This is alis world. Hes agreed to film for us to try to show what life is like for him and thousands of others living inside the uks Asylum System. Explosions, sirens. Alis from yemen, in the middle east. Its a country in the midst of a brutal civil war. Since 2014, more than Four Million people have had to flee. Almost a quarter of A Million have lost their lives as a result of the conflict. Ali escaped over the border to Saudi Arabia with his family. Then he set off alone to the uk, in search of a safer life for them all. This is footage captured by romanian Border Police of one boat that ali was in. Ali had paid smugglers to get him from serbia into romania, crossing the river danube. Halfway into the journey, the boat capsized. A Police Spotlight picks out whats left of the boat. Survivors clinging to the upturned vessel. This is all ali has left to remember his Friends By Footage from the day they were buried. Eight of alis friends drowned that night. It would be another four months before ali would make it to the uk, arriving in august last year. The horror of what he witnessed on his journey rarely leaves him. In english in arabic there are more than 5,000 Asylum Seekers in scotland and most of them In Glasgow. Thats because the council here is the only one there are more than 5,000 Asylum Seekers in scotland and most of them In Glasgow. Thats because the council here is the only one in scotland that has an agreement with the Uk Government to take them. Alis still learning english. So he comes to meet me with a friend who can translate for him if he needs it. Hi. How are you . Yeah, i am good. And you . Alis a father of five. His wife and his children are still in hiding in Saudi Arabia while he goes through the asylum process. Hes come to the uk hoping that, if asylum is granted, his family will be able tojoin him. Why did you decide to come to the uk . Why the uk . In arabic Usman Aslam is an immigration lawyer, representing hundreds of clients In Glasgow, including ali. Usman aslam is an immigration lawyer, representing hundreds of clients In Glasgow, including ali. One of the biggest difficulties that they face is the length of time that they are currently taking to process asylum claims. Now thats not because of covid 19, im talking about even pre covid 19. So how long are we talking that its taking . Their guidelines are usually up to six months. The reality is so many of them are waiting years before even interviewed. Sorry, hold on, sorry years before interview . Yes. Notjust years before being granted, or refused, years before even interviewed. The Home Office is planning a controversial overhaul of Immigration Policy which it says will speed up the asylum process. Anyone who fails to claim asylum in another safe country prior to arriving in the uk, or enters the country illegally, will be considered inadmissible to the Asylum System. Theres no such thing as a visa from those countries to come here on a safe and legal route. So, they have to come here clandestinely. But international agreements know that. The Refugee Convention of 1951 tells us that is how they arrive into countries. And we also have domestic legislation which says that cant be held against them. The majority of the Asylum Seekers who arrived in the Uk Nicola Sturgeon let me be blunt the stringent restrictions on our normal day to day lives that im about to set out are difficult and they are unprecedented. Soms johnson from this i evening i must give the british people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home. Within days of lockdown being announced, 400 Asylum Seekers began to be moved from their homes In Glasgow and placed into hotels. They receive around £5 a day to live. But when lockdown happened, that cash was withdrawn for those placed in hotels, because theyd be receiving three meals a day. There was talk of women not being able to buy sanitary protection, or people not being able to buy toiletries. Ramadan had begun and they werent able to get snacks at the right time, kitchens were not open. And we were just like, whats going on . It was very clear in our minds that people were suffering in the hotels. The Food Wasnt decent, they werent able to communicate, people were enclosed. We just thought if they would just get people into houses. Mears is the company responsible for housing Asylum Seekers In Glasgow. Its part of a ten Year Contract Worth over £1 billion that the company has with the Home Office. The contract states that mears must provide safe, habitable and fit for purpose accommodation. When covid hit and the lockdown started, we had a decision to make about how best to create a scenario where provisions were made available, whether that was food, whether that was health provisions, and ultimately if people needed to self isolate, we could do that safely within the confines of a hotel. Theyd actually uprooted hundreds of people out of residential homes, and dumped them in the hotels that were emptied so the rest of us did not have to catch a virus. Apparently, that was part of a wider Home Office plan to have hundreds of people transferred, in this city, to accommodation within hotels. Who decided to put them into hotels . Well, thats a conversation between ourselves and the Home Office, and. So did mears make the decision. No, mears. Or did Home Office make the decision . Home office makes the decision. So the Home Office said to mears, you need to put these Asylum Seekers in hotels. They gave us the permission to use hotels for covid contingency. No, no when you say they gave you permission. Yeah. Did you request to put them into hotels . We requested the. Yes, we requested to utilise hotels, yes. So the decision to move Asylum Seekers into hotels came from mears. The Home Office granted that request. Thats correct. It didnt make sense, and thats when we became very suspicious about what was happening to people under the care of mears in the city, because what we thought was a problem sorted was actually now starting to unravel. Mears says pressure grew further as more Asylum Seekers arrived In Glasgow looking for Housing Housing that mears was unable to provide. Where im struggling is, you have A Billion pound contract. Yeah. And yourjob is to provide accommodation. Yeah. And youre telling me you dont have that accommodation. So if you cant fulfil that contract, why do you still have the contract . So, you know, over 800 people came into support in a very quick period. We didnt have the properties readily available, theres never been a scenario in any contract where 800 people come in very quickly. Pressure on the system and on those in the hotels was reaching breaking point. News report the Centre Of Glasgow has been closed down after a major police incident. Emergency services have been called to West George Street. Reporter this is clearly one of the biggest Policing Operations in scotland in many, many years. A multiple stabbing at a hotel, the Park Inn, right in the Centre Of Glasgow. It was all blood, he said, i went down the stairs and the reception was full of blood. As Dontay Redhead stood just a few feet away. The attacker stabbed Max Glossoa several times in his stomach, as Dontay Redhead stood just a few feet away. All i can see is bwap and the guy was like, help help and my friend is on the ground and hes kicking up, hes kicking up. Even hisjersey hisjerseys literally been torn off. Im telling him, i say, look, listen to me, i youre going to be ok. I say, youre going to be ok. He said, i love my mother. Hes like, i love my mother. You thought about your mum . I said, please, just. Dont close your eyes. Dont do it. I called 999 and told them that this. I explained itjust as there is a madman that is stabbing people in front of the Park Inn hotel on West George Street in the city centre. I say, look, the guys in there. Isay. Look, the guys in there. Youve got to stop him. Hes going to kill people. All i can hear upstairs is pow, pow, pow | inside the Park Inn, Armed Police confront the Attacker And Shoot him dead. His name was Badreddin Adam a 28 year old sudanese man, whod arrived in the uk seeking asylum seven months earlier. Hed been living alongside max in the same hotel. In just a matter of minutes, badreddin stabbed max and five other people. Certainly, i mean, we were very aware of badreddin and his challenges. What i can say, though, at every turn, when support was required, whether that be to support him with self isolation, bring food to him, make sure he was ok, make sure that doctors were aware of his circumstance, we certainly made sure that happened. In the hotel, fellow Asylum Seekers say badreddin was withdrawn. He was terrified of catching Covid And Self isolated, appearing paranoid and agitated. Hed asked for help. So did others on his behalf. Hed been living in a Hotel Room for three months. Mears says its provided good care and has kept Asylum Seekers safer from covid in hotels during the pandemic. At one point, 700 Asylum Seekers were in six hotels across glasgow. Mears had intended for them only to be there for three months, how many Asylum Seekers do we currently have in hotels . We operate three hotels currently In Glasgow and theres 230 service users within those hotels. Does it sit comfortably with you that today, well over a year since you put Asylum Seekers into the hotels, they are still there . No. No, i dont want them in the hotels. And you expect them to be out by when . End ofjuly. End ofjuly . Yeah. You had already stated that the deadline would be december. You missed that. March missed that. What guarantees can you give thatjuly will be the date . Were seeing less Asylum Seekers self present In Glasgow. We dont have an expectation that thats going to grow, so based on the forecast that ive gotjust now, and the number of people who are leaving support through positive decisions, im confident that we will absolutely hit july deadline. Back in mclays guest house, and living in the one room and with no money, its starting to take its toll on ali. His five children, who are hiding in Saudi Arabia, are constantly on his mind. In arabic back in yemen, before the country was devastated by war, ali worked as an accountant. He has a university degree. Before her family tried to force her into marriage, saba was studying a medical degree in london. After she claimed asylum, she wasnt able to continue her studies or to work. Asylum seekers, many of them want to work. I want to work. Ill be paying taxes that, in turn, will be helping government. We are a burden on them. Why cant we support ourselves . I mean, i can work. I would do anything to be able to work. Saba believes the entire system is set up to act as a deterrent to force Asylum Seekers into withdrawing their claims. You think its designed to make you want to leave . Yeah, yeah. Its. In a way, they want to break you. I do have a problem back home, thats why im staying here. Why would i waste my life here . What if they say no, full stop, thats it, end of the line . Im not going back. Thats final. But. So what will you do, then . I dont want to say it, but im not going back. What are you not saying . Id rather. End my life here than to go back. Im not going back. That way ill be able to. Finish everything my way. All of the Asylum Seekers ive met have told me that they want to work. What are you seeing, in terms of the effect on your clients . A decline in their Mental Health and what. Like a very visible one . One that you have seen . Very visible. Were having people threatening to hurt themselves. We are seeing people that are hurting themselves. Yeah. I have had clients that have tried to overdose. Initially, they would rather do that than face being removed to the abuse or the torture that they ran away from. But now theyre ready to do that because theyre saying, im stuck in limbo for this long. Some people in scotland, like the rest of the uk, worry there are too many Asylum Seekers here. Usman aslam says the actual numbers tell a very different story. I think at The End of september 2020, so not that long ago, i think we had taken 31,000 applications. In a population of over 60 million. Germany, 155,000. France 129,000. Spain128,000. Greece, 81,000. Turkey, nearly Four Million. Lebanon, which is, what, the size of Dumfries And Galloway . Two million. Pakistan, 1. 4 million, so i think thats the Starting Point for the public is not to be, you know, misled. 2020 saw more than 6,000 Asylum Seekers In Glasgow. And the impact on council services began to show. So much so, the council took the decision to stop accepting Asylum Seekers sent to the city by the Home Office. We regard it as temporaryjust now. I suppose the question would be more, when do we stop that pause, when do we cease that pause . And when do you . I dont have an answer to thatjust now. But are we talking months . Years . I dont think its in the foreseeable future. I dont think its this year. Really . Right. And its possibly not next year because we still have significant challenges, not least that we still have almost 200 Asylum Seekers accommodated in hotels. We think its completely inappropriate and it doesnt offer them the kind of support that they need and that we think theyre entitled to. What needs to change, do you think . There needs to be an acceptance that additional fundings required within the system. That would allow, i believe, for Widening Dispersal to happen. You know, Asylum Seekers are supported withIn Glasgow, very uniquely, in that context so, you know, the ability to have dispersal into other local authorities would be an advantage. It would create new communities, and it would take the pressure off the infrastructure that sits around glasgow. But that does need to be funded. Mears would like the rest of scotland to open up, would you endorse that . Ultimately, yes, iwould like to see that as well. But while the Home Office runs, and the Uk Government run the Asylum System the way they do which, frankly, is on the cheap, privatised and on the cheap, other local authorities, funnily enough, are not going to be rushing to sign up to that, and i dont particularly blame them. Would you encourage them to . From your experience . Um. Right now, probably not. What they would be taking on is a very challenging relationship with the Home Office, and i think probably, in the case of most local authorities, a fundamental disconnect between their view of what an Asylum System should be and the Uk Governments view of what an Asylum System should be. The Home Office didnt want to be interviewed for this programme, but told us in a statement that. Its new plan for immigration will reform what it calls. The Home Office says it continues constructive discussions with Glasgow City council and would encourage other local authorities in scotland to open their doors to Asylum Seekers. Glasgow may have closed its doors for now to those being sent here directly from the Home Office, but Asylum Seekers continue to turn up in the city and ask for help. While the Uk Government presses on with its robust new plan for immigration, those desperately seeking asylum here can only wait and hope. Hello. Fairly quiet on the Weather Front right now. Plenty of dry weather across the uk, but we are expecting some showers and even the Odd Downpour and thunderstorms later on. And, of course, its a very big day in the world of sport. Weve got wimbledon, weve got the final at wembley too, so eyes on the weather too. Wed like the best Weather Conditions we could possibly get. So, this is what it looks like early in the morning some sunshine and dry but Weather Fronts are approaching and showers are brewing. The good news is that, for wimbledon, were expecting fine Weather Conditions, very pleasant temperatures of around 18 to 20 celsius with some scattered clouds. So, this is what it looks like for most of us through the morning. Its dry, but then in the afternoon, very quickly, heavy showers will develop across parts of Northern England and scotland. Some of them could be thundery. Also in the southwest, a Weather Front is approaching at the same time, so wet weather for the west country, parts of wales too. And this Weather Front will move slowly eastwards through the course of the day, so areas that will have been dry through the afternoon may turn a little cloudy and then wet, and that does mean that, just around kick off time, we are expecting some rain at wembley. But the good news is that it should be mostly light and fleeting. So, the forecast, then, into the week ahead. Well, heres a dip in Thejet Stream here. And you see some blobs of blue, so that indicates further showers on the cards. Quite often, when we do get a dip in Thejet Stream, we have low pressure over us and the ingredients for further showers, so lots of showers on the way once again on monday, some of them heavy. If you squint, you canjust about make out some Lime Green Colours there. That indicates a downpour or two. Temperatures in the sunshine will be around 20 degrees or so. The good news is that on tuesday, the weather improves. There will be fewer showers around. But we are watching these very close by over the near continent, northern france. They could just about clipped the southeast. But the further North And West you are, i think the drier and brighter the weather will be on tuesday. And then from midweek onwards, we are expecting high pressure to gradually drift from the azures in our direction. That means that the weather will settle down, there will be more dry weather around, lighter winds and also a little bit warmer too. I suspect in one or two spots eventually towards The End of the weekend, temperatures will hit 25. But wherever you are today, have a good day. Welcome to bbc news. Im mark lobel. Our top stories. The widow of haitis assassinated president claims he was killed because of his drive to improve the lives of his people. Mr moises Murder Led to a Power Vacuum well speak to the Countrys Election Minister about the way forward. California and nevada brace themselves for record breaking temperatures as the us heatwave continues. Less than 24 hours until the euro 2020 final between england and italy well have the latest from both camps. The World Number one, australias ash barty, wins the wimbledon womens singles final