Hotels are dreadful places for asylum seekers – we must do better
JVL Introduction
This Report which this article refers to highlights the unsuitability of hotels for long terms stays for asylum seekers – or anyone. And things will only get worse – the plans to house people in detention centres, even on “vessels” off shore are well advanced. (“Vessels” was the word used by the Home Secretary on the Today programme 26.04.23). Of course, the reality of living more than a year in a hotel room is not shared widely enough, leaving some to have the idea that a hotel stay is like being on holiday when, as this report demonstrates, it is far from that.
“Children need places to play,…They need space to do their homework and study. They need an environment geared towards their wellbeing, with toys, books and activities. They need opportunities to engage in social interactions, to have access to education.
None of that is possible living in one room in a hotel but we do know how to provide homes for people, both those who have lived here for many years – even all their lives – and for refugees and asylum seekers. This involves building (or converting existing buildings) into decent, genuinely affordable, decent homes. We need to stop talking about “housing” and talking about providing homes for all, which will require the development of an economy based on people’s needs, including asylum seekers fleeing wars and persecution.
And this IS our responsibility under the 1951 Refugee Convention created in the aftermath of two world wars, but especially the experience of Jewish people trying to flee their persecutors and finding few countries willing to take them. It was and must remain part of the “Never Again” (for anyone) . Britain – and far too many other countries can and must do better.
This article was originally published by Open Democracy on Tue 28 Mar 2023. Read the original here.
‘Night and day we cry’: A family’s year in an asylum seeker hotel
As a new report labels asylum accommodation ‘de-facto detention’, a mother details her family’s struggle
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The fundamental problem is the lack of affordable housing. British people struggle to find an affordable home and it is completely understandable if they see asylum seekers as “jumping the queue”. This is a classic Tory policy of setting one group of deprived people against the other. It also puts into sharp focus growing inequality
in Britain. While a family from Iran has to occupy one hotel room, I wonder how many bedrooms King Charles can use ? There are ten massive Royal Palaces in London alone.
I am a Christian and the Supreme Governor of my Church is just about to be crowned in Westminster Abbey. Does Charles know what Rabbi Jesus taught about housing the poor ?
I fear there are no quick solutions but unless we start now poor British people and asylum seekers will have their lives blighted by acute housing need for the foreseeable future.
I have mixed feelings about this article as I have supported destitute asylum seekers by providing accommodation and meals. Some for as long as a year, while at school. Others for much shorter times mostly because the home office provided accommodation. The asylum seekers came to me through a local charity. Their experiences varied greatly. But the main problem as the article states is the length of time it takes to process each case. Added to this is the stark experience of the ignorance of the people dealing with the cases. One person was called a liar because she said she had crossed the river on a ferry to escape. The officer insisted she must have used a bridge. There is not a bridge within many miles of the place she crossed from and to. I checked on Google Maps and printed off the pages for her to be able to refute the officers claim. However the complaint this mother made about not being able to see a doctor for four days and inconsistency of care would make many people laugh after the time that many have had to wait for an appointment and the fact that it is almost impossible to get continuity of care from a GP surgery. You may have a named GP but trying to get an appointment with that GP in a reasonable time is virtually impossible unless you count continuity as virtual/ Telephone/ or video appointment
Accommodation for asylum seekers has been appalling sin e at least the 1990s when I first started working with them. Landlords were getting paid high rents by the government to house people in infested, mouldy, insecure and dangerous properties. The turn of the screw with the move to hotels is that the asylum seekers are not allowed any money and the food is often even worse than. Eli reports, ie a plate of chips with ketchup. Some asylums seekers get 12 pounds a week in theory from the Salvation army but it often is not paid to them. In my local borough Camden, afghan families have been in hotels for over a year. At least we have a decent local paper which draws attention to this but cannot report on conditions.
I agree 100% with David Hawkins of how the Government get Working Class people to be anti asylum seekers. Housing is a major issue. When Thatcher put pressure on County Councils to sell their Council properties, experts at the time predicted exactly what has happened, the shortage of Council properties and the lack of building truly affordable housing would cause House prices to rocket upwards along with rents.
The Tories use this housing crisis to get people to believe that asylum seekers will only make things worse, it was also the tactic to get people to see immigrants as the enemy, Free Movement increased the population by 5 million over a very short time. The rules of Free Movement to control the numbers were ignored on purpose, the Tories wanted us to leave the EU and this was the weapon they used. It’s the same now, with asylum seekers, they are calling them “Boat People” and “Illegal Immigrants”, telling us how the numbers are so much higher than they were at this time last year, they know that the people will support their Anti asylum seekers policies.
PS how many times did Jeremy say, Let us deal with the causes of people fleeing their countries and seeking asylum.