Resource

When a person seeks safety in the UK, they are banned from working or from accessing mainstream benefits whilst they await a decision on their asylum claim. Instead, they must depend on housing and financial support supplied by the government. 

Before 2019, people seeking asylum would usually spend a few weeks in catered hostel style accommodation, before being moved to ‘dispersal’ housing across the country. However, due to significant increases in the backlog of people awaiting an asylum decision, the government began housing more and more people in ‘contingency accommodation’ – including hotels. 

Currently, people seeking asylum are being housed in hotels for extended periods, often exceeding six months, despite that accommodation was originally only being intended for short-term use. The word ‘hotel’ carries positive connotations for many, which is used by politicians and the media to falsely depict people seeking asylum as living in luxury. However, the reality could not be more different.  

We collaborated with the University of Hertfordshire and conducted a first-of-its-kind clinical study to investigate the impact of hotel accommodation on the mental health of people seeking asylum.  

Research findings 

Drawing from quantitative mental health screening data from 147 people seeking asylum, this study found that hotels negatively impact their mental health, with people seeking asylum living in hotels experiencing higher levels of housing problems, psychological distress, and depression – compared to those living in alternative types of accommodation. 

We also conducted qualitative interviews with 16 people seeking asylum who lived in hotels to understand the reasons why hotels negatively impact mental health:  

Lack of safety 

Those interviewed described a lack of privacy in hotels which made them feel unsafe - sharing bedrooms with strangers, being prevented from locking their doors, and hotel staff entering without consent. Some people seeking asylum experienced the conditions of hotels as retraumatising due to past traumatic experiences. Those with mental health difficulties found that living in hotels prevented recovery, with some participants’ considering ending their lives. 

“As a victim of torture, I've been mixing with people in a room of eight people. I don't know them; they don't know me. It was a nightmare. I got some of my stuff stolen. I feel very unsafe.” 

“Hotel staff get into your room without informing you.  And there's nothing you can do about it. You don't have a home. Because no one can just get into your house without informing you. You don't have a home.” 

“I know that the hotel is not torture, but I feel like it's like a prison.” 

“I had very strong suicidal thoughts, and I tried three times. I was out and one day I went to the underground station, and I was about to throw myself in front of the train. My mental health was totally destroyed during the time I stayed there.” 

Lack of autonomy 

The study found that hotel accommodation failed to meet people’s basic needs - with most participants describing the significant impact of only having access to poor quality food. Despite budgeting their £8.86 (now £9.95) weekly allowance, many described going without essentials, especially when covering travel costs for important appointments such as visits to the doctors. Strictly enforced schedules to leave and enter a hotel and the lack of control over daily life, caused considerable distress. 

“Sometimes you use it to buy a toiletries kind of thing. To buy a pad, toothpaste, toothbrush and at the end of the day you don't have anything else. Just need to plan if I'm going to see my solicitor.” 

“I would stay for a long time without eating because the food they would provide would make me feel sick.” 

“It is not easy living in the hotel - you're just locked up somewhere and you cannot do anything. When you have your home, it is like your freedom. During living in the hotel you're going out, they're asking you where you're going to, when you're coming back, what's the room number, what's the date…Even if I'm going to buy toothpaste, they ask me at the hotel. It’s like a prison.” 

Harming children and families 

Participants with children explained how living in a hotel impacted their children’s physical and mental health. Living in highly restricted hotel accommodation hampered parents’ ability to care for their children.  

“I feel a lot of stress at the time of the mealtime when meals comes because I keep thinking, ‘What about the children? Are they going to eat it? What if they don't like it? ' They lost a lot of weight since they came to this hotel. 

“The children generally don't have anywhere to sleep. They sleep on the floor.” 

“The other kid he don't seem to understand. Sometimes he say, ‘You bad mom. We don't have food. We don't have home.’ But what can I do?” 

Social isolation

Hotel accommodation isolated people seeking asylum and hindered community connection. Many reported declining mental health, which made social interaction difficult. Communication barriers led to feelings of hopelessness and limited access to essential services, including healthcare. The feeling of isolation that many experience in asylum hotels is worsened by the hostility they often face by untrained hotel staff. 

“How can you connect with people that when they ask you where you live, you live in a hotel. It's like, it's like I'm not complete. I don't even tell people about myself. I don't want them to ask. They will say, ‘Why are you living in the hotel? What happened?’ And that, that's going to bring you back to your memories, so it's better to be cool and sort yourself out.” 

“I cannot do anything. I'll wait until my friend who speaks English to come and to help. You feel you are helpless. I know an Egyptian guy he needs desperately an appointment with a doctor because he's sick and no one … he cannot go to reception to expand opportunities and get an appointment for the doctor.” 

“Hotel staff don't treat you like human being.” 

Survival Strategies  

Participants spoke about their survival strategies for living in hotels: finding solace and strength in faith and family and seeking support from the community, peers, and services. 

“I am still very determined to continue to live and to participate in this society - for my children's future.” 

“I found the church. Then I'm going there every day […] Better to have breakfast there than in the hotel because people there are more human, so you feel yourself a part of society.” 

“The Helen Bamber Foundation gave me mental health and psychological therapies and relief. This is the only time I used to feel really safe. They gave me a lot of support.” 

“What I do the two times my appointment with solicitor, I go to library. I use the computer to track how long does it take me, so it would take me 2 hours and 50 minutes, so I print the map and then I walk.” 

Ideas for changing the housing system 

Participants emphasised the importance of meeting people’s basic needs, with access to better quality food and access to services. Participants also recommended reforming staff behaviour and increasing Home Office oversight of hotel management. Lastly, community housing was emphasised as a superior alternative to hotels. 

“Service has to be controlled, monitored. What happened previously is that when some inspector come from the Home Office to do an inspection in the hotel […] they clean everything; they tidy everything. […] They work 24 hours day and the night just to show the guy from the Home Office that we are providing a very good service.” 

“I don't think that hotel is a place that people should live for more than six months. I kept staying there for two years without fridge, without food. Can you live like that? Ask yourself, ‘Can I be in this position?’ You agree for others; ask yourself, ‘Can I be like this?” 

Clinical Implications  

Clinical implications include the importance of assessing the impact of housing on mental health, considering hotel accommodation as a risk factor for self-harm and suicidal ideation, and referring asylum seekers to community groups and religious organisations.  

Policy Implications  

This research provides further evidence in support of the Helen Bamber Foundation’s recommendations that people seeking asylum in the UK should have access to quality, suitable housing in communities.  

While we welcome Labour’s commitment to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, we advocate for the Home Office to take immediate action to: 

• Ensure 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.  

• Prioritise moving vulnerable groups, including survivors of trafficking and torture, children, families, and people with significant physical and mental health difficulties, into community housing. 

• Ensure greater accountability and oversight in hotels to prevent abuses of power. 

• Establish clear, accessible complaint mechanisms that allow people seeking asylum to raise concerns that are investigated independently from hotel management. 

• Improve support for accessing essential services, including healthcare, legal advice, and asylum-related appointments and facilitating asylum seekers’ ability to engage with the asylum process.  

• Provide free bus travel within London zones 1-6 to those seeking asylum, to ensure that people can travel to necessary appointments from hotels.  

• Guarantee access to interpreters in hotels to support effective communication between staff and residents.  

Read the full, open access article here.