BBC report on bed bugs in housing for torture victims

This BBC article covers a report by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture on problems — including bed bugs, rats, and broken radiators — in housing for victims of torture (and other asylum seekers). Maria, a woman who escaped torture in Africa with her three and six year old boys said,

“It’s so cold, there’s bed bugs and there’s rats… when they sleep there, the rats get on to the bed.”

And the article continues,

That means all three of them now sleep, eat and play in the main room which is just big enough to fit two single beds joined together.

She says there are blood stains on the grimy wall above the bed.

“The bed bugs climb up the wall, one was just above my head so I squashed it,” she says.

“Once the youngest one had a nose bleed and then one of these bugs came out of the nose.”