Clearsprings Group – the company contracted by the Home Office to run accommodation services for asylum seekers in Cardiff – has decided to drop its controversial policy of making refugee tenants wear red wristbands in order to claim the meals they’re entitled to.

A number of those tenants claim that they have been singled out for abuse by local residents as a result of the policy. Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff Central, has confirmed that the practice will come to an end today, after speaking to the operations director at Clearsprings.

Clearsprings has defended the policy, claiming it came into effect in the face of a dramatic increase in the number of asylum seekers it was housing: "Volumes of people in initial accommodation sites, including Cardiff [have] increased quickly. Clearsprings has taken steps, agreed with the Home Office, to increase capacity in line with this demand in the form of additional self-catering accommodation.

"Those clients in the self-catering units receive a weekly allowance in the form of supermarket vouchers and those in full-board accommodation are issued with a coloured wristband that bears no other logo or text identifying its use or origin. Full-board clients are required to show their wristbands in order to receive meals in the restaurant."

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