As riots erupted across England and Northern Ireland over the last week, so-called ‘asylum hotels’ became a target for some groups, with hotels attacked in numerous towns.
Ferret Fact Service explains how the hotels work, and why they have been a focus for attention.
What are asylum hotels?
“Asylum hotels” is a term given to hotels which are block booked to provide accommodation to asylum seekers. This accommodation is procured by Home Office contractors, from both independent hotels and well-known chains.
People are legally entitled to come to the UK to claim asylum under the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention. To be granted refugee status people must prove they have a well-founded fear of being persecuted in their home country.
While their claim for refugee status is assessed, asylum seekers are not allowed to work or claim benefits. If they would otherwise be destitute, the Home Office is obliged to provide accommodation.
It currently contracts three companies – Serco, Clearsprings and Mears – to provide that housing on its behalf. The contracts, awarded in 2019 for 10 years, are worth £4bn to the companies involved. However, costs have escalated.
A combination of a growing backlog of asylum cases and a dramatic increase in new asylum applications from 2021 to 2023, following a dip during Covid-19 travel restrictions, means there has been unprecedented demand for asylum accommodation in recent years.
This has led to the use of hotels across the UK as “contingency accommodation” for those for whom flats cannot be found.
The average stay is more than six months, and charities have raised concerns about asylum seekers’ mental health, access to legal advice and healthcare.
The Home Office has always claimed the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure.
The Conservative UK Government reduced the number of hotels used between October 2023 and May this year. It planned to house some people in flats and others in large-scale institutional accommodation such as Napier Barracks in Kent and the Bibby Stockholm barge, moored off the Dorset coast.
In July the new Labour government announced that the barge would close in January 2025. It is also “committed” to reducing the use of hotels.
How were asylum seekers previously accommodated?
Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 asylum seekers were housed by local authorities across the UK who agreed to do so. Initially housing was provided at least in part by local authorities, but by 2012 the contracts were controlled completely by large private firms.
Following a 28-day period in “initial accommodation” – sometimes provided in hostels or similar – people were housed in subcontracted private lets, often in working-class communities.
Campaigners point out that this allowed asylum seekers to integrate, learn English, volunteer and for others to get to know their asylum seeking neighbours. Scottish solidarity campaigns such as those aiming to prevent early morning immigration operations – or dawn raids – often started in these communities.
Some asylum seekers, particularly families, are still placed in flats in this way.
Following a positive asylum decision people are asked to leave asylum accommodation within 28 days and are eligible to access mainstream benefits and apply for housing. If they are refused they have 21 days before asylum support including accommodation is removed.
Why did this change?
Despite a previous UK Government target to make an initial decision on all asylum claims within six months – scrapped in 2019 – many asylum claims take years, leading to an increasing number of people in the system.
By November 2019 the Refugee Council in England reported concerns that people had been placed in often rundown hotels, described as “contingency accommodation”. The numbers sent to hotels continued to escalate throughout 2020.
Meanwhile the number of asylum applications rose dramatically in 2022 and 2023 following a dip during Covid-19 restrictions on travel, leading to an unprecedented demand for asylum accommodation.
What is the situation in Scotland?
In March 2020, some asylum seekers were living in more expensive “serviced apartments” – usually used as short-term tourist accommodation – due to the shortage of available flats.
As Covid-19 restrictions hit these asylum seekers were also moved into contingency hotels, which were lying empty due to travel restrictions.
Despite continued assurances that asylum seekers would be moved back into flats in the community, the use of the hotels across Scotland has increased. There are currently at least 15 hotels being used in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen along with towns from Falkirk to Paisley and East Kilbride, accommodating approximately 1,500 people.
What do asylum seekers say about the experience?
While in hotel accommodation asylum seekers are usually expected to share a bedroom and are provided with three basic meals per day. They receive £8.86 per week towards essentials such as phone data, bus or train fares, clothing and non-prescription medicines.
Concerns have been raised about the impact of isolation, uncertainty and extreme poverty facing those in the hotels.
In June 2020 Badreddin Abdalla Adam Bosh, 28, from Sudan, stabbed six people including a police officer at the Park Inn Hotel in Glasgow city centre, while suffering a severe mental health crisis. In May 2020, 30-year-old Syrian asylum seeker Adnan Olbeh died in a rundown Glasgow guesthouse.
Several suicide attempts have since been reported at hotels in Scotland.
How much does it cost?
In December 2023 alone, the Home Office paid £274m for up to 64,000 beds in hotels in the UK, 45,800 of which were being used. Home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed that due to a “shocking” backlog, the potential cost could be “an eye-watering £30bn to £40bn” in the next four years unless policies changed.
How have they become a target for the far right?
Asylum hotels have become a flashpoint for protests over recent years.
During demonstrations in Rotherham, Aldershot and Tamworth last week, hotels hosting people claiming asylum were attacked after large groups formed outside.
Protests relating to these hotels are often organised by far right groups, and have taken place sporadically across the UK, ramping up over recent years.
Opponents to the centres have complained the asylum hotels put pressure on local services, and have claimed those who are staying there have caused crime within the community. However, the evidence on crime rates linked to increases in asylum seekers is inconclusive, according to Oxford University.
Anti-immigration activists have targeted asylum hotels in Liverpool, with violent demonstrations taking place in 2023 and 2024. These were reportedly organised by far-right groups.
In Wales, demonstrators set up a roadblock to stop asylum seekers being housed at a hotel in Llanelli.
Far right political party Britain First organised a small protest at a hotel for people claiming asylum in Southport in 2021, as well as similar protests in Worcester and Essex.
A protest was held in Cheshire in 2020, while similar demonstrations have occurred in Ireland in the last decade.
In Scotland, there have been a few protests at asylum hotels in recent years.
In 2015, a small anti-immigration rally was held near a hotel where 150 people seeking asylum had been placed in Ayr. It was called by the far right group Scottish Defence League, an offshoot of the English Defence League.
The Ferret has reported on demonstrations at an asylum hotel in Erskine in 2023, which were led by a far right organisation called Patriotic Alternative (PA) Scotland, and later by Homeland, a group which splintered from PA. Homeland is now registered as a political party. The events were met with counter-protests by pro-immigration campaigners.
We also revealed that a far right activist posed as a Home Office inspector to get information about a hotel in Dumfries hosting Ukrainian refugees.
What is happening in Scotland now?
Plans for a number of anti-immigration protests have circulated online in recent days, with events organised by far right groups reportedly planned this weekend in various Scottish towns. However, there has been no official confirmation that these will take place.
Counter protests have been organised in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Paisley by the group Stand Up to Racism.
Police Scotland told The Ferret there would be “enhanced patrols and direct engagement” in the coming weeks, and said it was aware of “a number of planned protests, and counter protests, over the coming weeks, which will be policed appropriately”.
However, they said there was currently “no intelligence to suggest any protest is planned” in Glasgow’s George Square on Wednesday 7 August, as has been suggested.
Ferret Fact Service (FFS) is a non-partisan fact checker, and signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles.
All the sources used in our checks are publicly available and the FFS fact-checking methodology can be viewed here.
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