BBC News
A private company that provides meals for asylum seekers in Cardiff will drop demands for them to wear wristbands as a condition for receiving food, the Home Office has confirmed.
The brightly coloured bands had been given to asylum seekers staying at Lynx House so they could claim meals. But some called it dehumanising and said they had become targets for abuse. It comes after asylum seekers in Middlesbrough said they were abused after their doors were painted red.
A company housing the asylum seekers later said it would repaint the doors after concerns people were being singled out as immigrants.
Wales News Service
Officials for the Home Office told the BBC on Monday the Clearsprings Group - the company contracted by the UK government to run accommodation services in Cardiff - would be scrapping the wristband scheme.
A spokesman said the "highest standards" were expected from contractors, including not endangering the safety of anyone in their care.
"If there is any evidence to suggest this is not the case, it will be treated with the utmost seriousness and dealt with accordingly," he added.
Labour MP for Cardiff Central, Jo Stevens, said: "It looks like the pressure has resulted in the withdrawal of this scheme.
"This hopefully sees an end to what has been a pretty sorry episode for Cardiff, which is normally such a welcoming city."
Eric Ngalle speaks to BBC Wales
Earlier, 36-year-old refugee Eric Ngalle told BBC Wales he had spent nearly two months at Lynx House and challenged the need to wear the wrist bands, but was unable to change the policy.
He said he was told it was a Home Office directive, but none of the asylum seekers believed this explanation.
He said he felt having to wear the wristbands was "labelling" and "stressful".
BBC/@markhutchings1 /Twitter
Chloe Marong, who works at the Trinity Centre in Cardiff which provides support for asylum seekers, said many people were unhappy about the wristbands.
She told BBC Wales she thought the treatment was dehumanising and left people vulnerable to abuse.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said the Home Office should face "serious questions" about the situation.
The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies, added: "I find it very hard to understand how a system like this could ever be deemed appropriate and frankly I'm shocked and appalled."
PA
Clearsprings Ready Homes told the Guardian its policy had come in the face of an increase in asylum seekers.
A spokesman said: "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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