A homeless camp has been moved ahead of Manchester’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, relocating outside the Midland Hotel.
Rough sleepers who have been camping outside Manchester Town Hall for weeks say police told them to leave St Peter’s Square on Monday (December 30). A letter from Manchester council dated December 19 accuses them of ‘trespassing’ and lists concerns about the camp, including ‘urine and defecation’ causing a ‘strong unpleasant odour’.
A map attached to the letter marks the area around Central Library, the Town Hall and the Town Hall Extension in red and orders all those residing in the tents to leave the area ‘immediately’. The letter also makes reference to ‘pre-event safety procedures’ ahead of the New Year’s Eve celebrations planned in the city centre tonight (December 31).
A free fireworks event is set to take place in St Peter’s Square from 10pm with up to 20,000 people expected to attend. Fireworks will be released from the roof of Central Library with a live stage set up outside the building.
Ahead of the event, the area in front of the Town Hall Extension building which has been lined with red tents for months, has been fenced off. Manchester council has said the tents had to be moved to allow for a ‘full police sweep’ of the area to ensure it is a ‘secure and safe site’ and remains so ahead of tonight’s New Year’s Eve event.
The local authority said that the people sleeping in the tents have all been offered somewhere to sleep on a temporary basis. Abdallah Hassan, 23, who has been sleeping rough in one of those tents for several weeks, said police officers instructed people in the tents to leave the area yesterday (December 30) ahead of New Year’s Eve.
He told the Manchester Evening News that he and others in the tents, relocated to Lower Mosley Street, outside the Midland Hotel – which is not within the area marked in red on the map. He claims that police returned this morning (December 31), telling them to leave their new spot – but the tents remained there throughout the day.
The camp has now moved to Lower Mosley Street
(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
According to Mr Hassan, a council worker then offered those in the tents a space in a homeless shelter for one night – although the local authority has said that the offer of ’emergency sit-up overnight places’ is for three nights, not just one. But Mr Hassan said he and others refused the offer, arguing that they need longer-term accommodation.
“They told us tomorrow will be a big event here,” he said. “We told them we don’t have anywhere to go. They said they can give us shelter to sleep just for one night. Just for one night? We need a hostel or shared house.
“We want to go to college, to go to work. If we go there and sleep there [tonight], where will we go [tomorrow]?”
Mr Hassan, who came to Manchester last month after being granted asylum in Newcastle, says that most of the men living in the tents are from Sudan. He decided to leave the North East because he had ‘problems’ there, claiming he had been followed by people with guns in the city, and came to Manchester where he knows people.
Another Sudanese refugee, Magdi Ali, 26, who has been sleeping rough in Manchester for the last 20 days, also arrived from Newcastle. Others told the M.E.N. that refugees from Eritrea and Syria are also in the encampment.
Around half of Manchester’s rough sleepers are refugees
(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
The M.E.N. understands that around half of the rough sleepers currently in Manchester are refugees who have recently had their asylum claim approved. Newly recognised refugees now have up to 56 days before they are evicted from government-funded accommodation, giving councils more time to find housing for those who need it.
However, the M.E.N. understands around 70 per cent of refugees who are sleeping rough in Manchester had been living in accommodation outside of Greater Manchester. Manchester council has previously said that many of them have come to the city ‘in the mistaken belief that we would be able to do more to support them than other places’.
Refugees have been sleeping outside the Town Hall Extension building in Manchester since last winter. Red tents started popping up in the spring, with organiser Emma Leyla Mohareb saying that it had been set up as a protest.
As more people flocked to the area, it turned into a community under the arches. Calls were made to use council buildings as temporary shelters, but many people soon left after being offered temporary accommodation.
The arches have now been fenced off but tents began to appear in front of the fencing later in the year. The camp came back after it was removed by police and was taken down again ahead of Remembrance Day before returning.
A letter from Manchester council dated December 19 accuses those residing in tents at St Peter’s Square of ‘trespassing’ on council-owned land. Among the concerns the letter lists are ‘significant accumulation of waste and litter’, ‘urine and defecation’ and ‘safeguarding concerns’ when vulnerable people including babies sleep at the camp.
The area outside the Town Hall Extension building has now been fenced off
(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
The letter also refers to disruption to local business and to the council’s ‘lawful use of the land’, saying that the council is required to work with police to follow ‘pre-event safety procedures’ ahead of the New Year’s Eve event.
A separate letter written in Arabic appears to have been issued by Greater Manchester Police alongside a map which highlights the area where tents must be removed from. GMP told the M.E.N. it has been assisting the council.
A Manchester council spokesperson said: “St Peter’s Square is the venue tonight for Manchester’s New Year’s Eve fireworks event with thousands of people expected.
“As with any large-scale event of this kind there are strict safety precautions and other logistical considerations involved, including the need for a full police sweep of the area to ensure it is a secure and safe site and remains so ahead of tonight’s event. This would not have been possible with the tents left in place.
“Although our approach ahead of tonight’s New Year’s Eve event has been the same as that we took ahead of our Remembrance Weekend events back in November, we recognise that alternative emergency accommodation options for anyone camping in the tents may be more limited this week due to the time of year. We therefore put arrangements in place to ensure all those in the tents were made an offer of emergency sit-up overnight placements indoors on a temporary basis until other support services in the city reopen after the Bank holiday.
“We are and always have been in daily contact with those camping in the tents and continue to encourage them to move on and access the support available.
“We remain clear that the camp – which consists predominantly of people who are refugees – is in nobody’s best interests and that it is not a safe, suitable or sanitary environment from which to access support. It is also not compatible with the smooth delivery of public events in and around St Peter’s Square, or public services from the nearby town hall extension.”