This is the list of documents available for the submission Motion by Councillor Susan Aitken:- "Council believes that Glasgow's diversity is one of its great strengths, and that since its founding 850 years ago, migration has been a singular factor in growing the city, building communities and shaping our identity. More recently, Council acknowledges that we have welcomed thousands of new Glaswegians as the UK's most prominent asylum dispersal city and remain the only part of Scotland with a significant refugee population. Well over 90% of all refugees and displaced people who settle in Scotland have made a home in Glasgow. Council understands that the global refugee crisis is only likely to grow and believes that wealthy countries like the UK have a moral and practical responsibility to play in addressing that. Council also believes that Glasgow's ability to continue to play our very significant role in supporting the delivery of UK Government asylum and refugee policy and Scottish Government resettlement schemes must be adequately supported by those governments. Council expresses its deep concern about an increase in deliberate disinformation about asylum seekers, refugees and migrants that aims to spread fear and alarm among local residents and disrupt community cohesion, and which have led to incidents in Glasgow and other towns and cities in recent months. Council understands that such disinformation is often orchestrated by far-right groups and individuals and believes that it has the potential to present a real risk to the safety and wellbeing of minority ethnic people in our communities. Council understands that while much of this disinformation is spread online, it has also been amplified by elected politicians who abuse the privileged platforms available to them. Council condemns without reservation the actions of any politician who seeks to target and scapegoat migrants as the cause of structural challenges within society, such as housing shortages. In particular, Council is disgusted by attempts to blame asylum seekers and refugees for patterns of crime and suggestions that they pose a particular threat to women and children through sexual crimes, which Council understands to be one of the oldest and nastiest of racist smears. Council affirms the following to be true: - People seeking asylum and people who have been given leave to remain in the UK as refugees have legal rights under the 1951 Refugee Convention and are not "illegal" - as those spreading disinformation claim - nor are the vast majority of people who come from elsewhere to make their homes in Glasgow. - Glasgow City Council is not responsible for the housing of people seeking asylum but officers from the HSCP work closely with Mears, the Home Office contractors who have this responsibility. There are no intentions to use former care homes or similar properties to accommodate asylum seekers in Glasgow and Glasgow City Council would not support any such plans. - While there are significant numbers of people who have been given leave to remain in the UK as refugees among Glasgow's homeless population living in temporary accommodation, these individuals are not themselves responsible for housing pressures in the city, face the same challenges as other homeless people, and do not receive any special or priority treatment in the allocation of permanent accommodation. - There is no evidence to suggest Glasgow is less safe for women and children than other parts of Scotland and the UK, and no evidence to suggest that there is a higher incidence of child sexual exploitation or sexual violence against women among asylum seekers and refugees than among the population at large. - Glasgow builds more houses for social rent than any other local authority in the UK, more than Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and Bristol combined in the last five years and has also used more CPOs to acquire empty homes than all other Scottish local authorities combined. Glasgow continues to have significant capacity to build and acquire more homes to address the housing emergency if funding is provided by governments. Council believes that Governments at all levels have a role to play in combatting disinformation and the threat it poses to the safety of not only asylum seekers and refugees and people who work with them but also the wider BAME population. Council therefore resolves to work across all levels of government, and with partners and stakeholders to ensure the rapid flow of relevant information when disinformation events occur, and asks that the Chief Executive write to partners such as the Home Office, Mears and Police Scotland to seek their undertaking to share relevant information quickly, and to work with Glasgow City Council and our partner agencies to combat disinformation as quickly as possible. Furthermore, Council understands that disinformation responses must be ongoing and adaptive and therefore instructs officers to ensure that instances of disinformation and misinformation involving our city and Council are recorded to better respond to emerging trends. Council understands however that Glasgow's unique position within the UK as an asylum dispersal authority and a magnet destination for people who have been given leave to remain creates particular pressures that may make it easier for disinformation to gain a foothold and which have made Glasgow a target for far-right lies. Council therefore supports calls by the Leader of the Council and others for the Scottish Government to recognise and respond to Glasgow's specific needs in its ongoing response to the housing emergency; and for the UK Government to urgently provide Glasgow City Council with the necessary funding to address the severe impacts of UK policies that have created thousands of homeless refugees and to change its policy approach, which is putting unacceptable pressure on local authority budgets. Finally, Council agrees that combatting the far-right disinformation threat calls for moral leadership from elected politicians at all levels and agrees that all councillors should reject racist fearmongering and defend democracy, human rights, and a society enriched by diversity, not threatened by it. Council understands that this means standing clearly and confidently for safe routes for people seeking asylum, properly funded services, and an asylum system that reflects the values we say we hold.".

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