Asylum seekers singled out in London

They said most of Jomast’s housing stock do feature red doors but that applies to both private and asylum housing.

The organisation’s refugee and migrant rights programme director Steve Symonds said: “No-one should have to live in fear of having dog excrement smeared on their door or stones thrown at their windows”.

In the meeting it was reiterated Jomast had no policy that dictated the front doors of the properties inhabited by asylum seekers had to be painted red.

One resident in the city voiced his anger at the presence of doors on the provided properties.

“It’s like saying we’re not the same as you”.

The Times said it identified 168 houses owned by Jomast, 155 of which had red doors.

“When people see them (the red doors), everyone knows it means asylum seekers”, said one man whose house was vandalized. He lives with another Eritrean and two Syrians.

Suzanne Fletcher, a former local councilor in the area, said in an interview with BBC’s Radio 4 Today Show on Wednesday that she had raised the issue with G4S in 2012, but the company had taken no action.

The Home Office have started an “urgent audit” of asylum-seeker housing in the area. It’s a disgrace, some of us dream of a home with a front door, and these people come over from Islamania and get it all’.

The Times quoted Ahmad Zubair from Afghanistan as saying that he repainted his front door white to stop the abuse but that a Jomast worker repainted it red, citing company policy.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire said in a statement: “I am deeply concerned by this issue and I have commissioned Home Office officials to conduct an urgent audit of asylum seeker housing in the North East.

I have visited some of the hovels which have apparently passed the test as decent homes which drive huge profits directly from Government contracts”. “If we find any evidence of discrimination against asylum seekers it will be dealt with immediately as any such behaviour will not be tolerated”.

“Many of our asylum seekers feel the red doors make them a target”, said Pete Widlinski, manager of local group Justice First, which offers support to claimants.

One Iranian asylum seeker told how he had been plagued by youths throwing eggs and prostitutes banging on his windows. Jomast said it was “ludicrous” to suggest it had practised discrimination.

“Anything which identifies asylum seeker accommodation to those who may wish to harm those accommodated in the properties must be avoided”, he told parliament, urging anyone who had suffered racist abuse to contact the police.

“Over four years ago when I was working with groups of asylum seekers, they were anxious it marked them out and were anxious about attacks”, she said.

Middlesbrough has Britain’s highest concentration of refugees.

“We welcome the Home Office’s pledge to review this, but ministers must face the fact they can not absolve themselves from all responsibility when by their own rhetoric and policies they have demonised asylum seekers and other migrants”.