An expensive exercise in cruelty: Private companies are profiting from a dehumanising asylum housing system
Behrouz, a client of Helen Bamber Foundation, is seeking protection in the UK after being brutally tortured by the police in Iran for over three years. He has complex PTSD, anxiety and depression as a result. Despite that, he is forced to live in an asylum hotel room with no window and has to share the small space with a stranger. This is extremely re-traumatising. “I feel like when I did in prison,” he says. “It makes me more stressed, and I don’t know whether it is night or day, raining or sunny.”
Another client, Fozia, who had fled armed conflict in Eritrea, was helping her children with their homework in their cramped room in ‘dispersal accommodation’ (temporary housing provided while waiting for an asylum decision) when the ceiling collapsed, nearly injuring them. Only a month ago, she had complained to the staff regarding severe damp, leakage and black mold in her room – she was worried that the state of disrepair was rapidly worsening. But little was done.
Unliveable conditions
Behrouz and Fozia are not alone in their horrific experiences of living in the UK’s asylum accommodation. Thousands of people seeking protection, including survivors of trafficking and torture, are placed in squalid hotels, remote large ex-military sites, and dispersal accommodation which is in disrepair. Living in unhygienic and crowded spaces, putting up with substandard food and hostile support staff, and living on an allowance of £8.86 per person per week is an everyday reality for many, as they are not allowed to work while waiting for a decision on their asylum claim. This is compounded by the sheer length of time they spend in these conditions. We have had clients whose children have spent most of their lives in a hotel room. For children with special needs, such as learning disabilities and autism, living in such overcrowded conditions can be particularly unsuitable and our clients have reported bullying by hotel staff and/or other residents.
As a charity that specialises in supporting survivors of torture and trafficking, who have experienced extreme cruelty, we have supported numerous clients who have been deemed unsuitable for room-sharing (in writing) by the Home Office itself who have then been moved at no notice to a room shared with a stranger. The Home Office’s unwillingness to consult experts and NGOs and operation of an opaque system by which people are allocated accommodation often means that for charities like us legal action is the only effective recourse to ensure our client is moved to somewhere more suitable.
Symbols of failure and profit
For far too long, the Home Office has relied on for-profit companies and sub-contractors to provide these forms of asylum accommodation. For-profit companies such as Clearsprings Group, Mears, and Serco earn millions in taxpayer-subsidised profit, while deliberately overseeing and delivering a housing system which dehumanises and frequently further traumatises vulnerable people seeking asylum. On coming to power the government announced plans to close all asylum hotels, and the Home Office recently terminated its contract with Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL) , but these forms of accommodation remain widely in use. Part of the reason for this is the dramatic increase in the number of asylum claims being refused, which has resulted in thousands of cases going appeal and waiting months for a hearing in the Tribunal - during which time people continue to be stuck in asylum accommodation.
After five years in operation, the Home Office has confirmed that asylum camp at Napier barracks, a former military site, will close in September, but Wethersfield asylum camp continues to accommodate hundreds of men seeking asylum, many of whom are survivors of trafficking and torture. Putting aside the ongoing harm this site causes to people’s health, it is also eye-wateringly expensive to run. The use of Wethersfield asylum camp between 2023-24 to 2026-27 is due to cost £338.7 million. We urge the government to close Wethersfield and stop wasting millions on private contractors. Instead, asylum accommodation should be provided communities through work with local authorities, charities and other stakeholders.
In addition, the Home Office should focus on ensuring that quality asylum decisions are made as soon as possible. Efficient management of the asylum system will reduce and then eliminate the need for hotels and large accommodation sites to be used. Once finally and fully closed, the legacy of these sites will be that they were solely an expensive exercise in cruelty.