Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

No Angel at Celebrating Sanctuary this year

Corporate Watch | 18.06.2009 16:36 | Migration | Birmingham

The Angel Group, the UK's biggest private asylum accommodation provider, has apparently pulled out of sponsoring this year's Celebrating Sanctuary, Corporate Watch has learnt. The 'festival' is Birmingham's version of the national Refugee Week, which is celebrated between 14th and 20th June. Since 2001, Angel had been one of the main sponsors of the event until campaigners started to protest about Celebrating Sanctuary being funded by 'such dodgy asylum profiteers'.

Burst The Angel Group's bubble and expose the Asylum Profiteers
Burst The Angel Group's bubble and expose the Asylum Profiteers


In 2006, the 'Supporters' page on the Celebrating Sanctuary website stated: "A huge thank you to the many organisations and individuals who support Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham. In particular we're grateful to the Angel Group who first offered support in 2001 and continue to provide core funding" (original emphasis). Although the page has now disappeared from the website, it can still be accessed via Web Archive. Other sponsors included the BBC, the City Council and big NGO's such as Oxfam and Save the Children. This year, their twitter page stated: "This year's events are supported by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Children's Society & Birmingham City Council."

The events typically include a free festival and open-air concert in the city centre, and this year also contained a presentation by the Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team (ASIRT) about the miserable housing conditions suffered by some asylum seekers (see here). The presentation, entitled 'The Wall of Shame', has been seen by many as a significant shift in comparison to previous years when Angel had the biggest tent showcasing its shiny houses and smiley clients. Angel is particularly famous for its miserable asylum hostels and houses.

One of No Borders Birmingham, which had been protesting against Angel's involvement in Celebrating Sanctuary, said: "We believe it is more than likely that the Angel Group pulled out of Celebrating Sanctuary because of the adverse publicity generated by campaigners around the country. Locally, we protested against their involvement in Celebrating Sanctuary, which was essentially a cheap PR exercise to polish their image. Other No Borders groups have been protesting against their role as slum landlords in the asylum system. If it's true that they have pulled out, this is a significant victory for anti-corporate campaigners. Another asylum profiteer has been exposed and defeated."

The Angel Group first came into light in 2005, when the Home Office carried out an investigation into claims that the London-based housing provider charged both the Home Office and Leeds City Council for the same properties. Company records, internal emails and testimony from former Angel employees also showed the company was paid for accommodation that was "unfit for habitation" or for which it had no keys. Records further suggested Angel claimed discounts on council tax to which it was not entitled in Leeds and Newcastle (see here and here). Ever since then, Angel has been subject to a growing anti-corporate campaign, most notably by No Borders groups in Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds (see here, for example).

The Angel Group, which is wholly owned by Julia Davey, is the UK's biggest asylum accommodation provider, alongside eight others including Clearsprings, Priority Properties and United Property Management. The nine companies had gained five-year contracts with the Home Office in April 2006 to provide temporary accommodation for around 35,000 asylum seekers on behalf of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS). According to the Home Office, the total value of the contracts, which will expire in 2011, is approximately £135 million per year (see here). Details acquired by Corporate Watch under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Angel's contract value is £275,441,736, the largest amongst the nine.

The Angel Group now has some of the biggest and most prestigious housing projects in the country, including the new Angel House in London's Canary Wharf (see here). In 2003, Julia Davey is reported to have paid herself a salary of £458,000, as well as collecting nearly £1m in dividends.

Corporate Watch
- Homepage: http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3389

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Haven't Angel lost their contract? — Gabriel
  2. Angel & CS. — No one is illegal.
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech