Inside an asylum hotel: ‘We’re too scared to leave’.
Getty Images“The protests really scare me,” said John (not his real name), who has been living in a Surrey hotel for three years after fleeing persecution in Tanzania.
“Each of us is very afraid to leave,” he told the BBC, adding that the situation was especially concerning for the children living there.
The Home Office stated that work was underway to close all asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.
‘We want to work hard’
Although there had been no protests outside his hotel, John said reading about them made him afraid to go outside.
He went on to say that he never expected to see demonstrations, and that people forgot that asylum seekers had fled challenges in their home countries. “We are here for peace and to establish normal lives,” he told us.
The majority of asylum seekers inside hotels were ordinary people who were willing to “work hard,” John added. He stated that there had been no “bad reports” about people in his hotel since he started living there in 2022.
John urged the Home Office to expedite asylum applications and allow them to work so they could get out of hotels and support themselves.
The government stated that it inherited a “broken” asylum system, with fewer than 210 asylum hotels now in operation, down from a peak of over 400 in the summer of 2023.
PA MediaThe government is legally required to house asylum seekers who would otherwise be homeless.
A large backlog of asylum applications and a lack of long-term housing options have resulted in a “much greater reliance” on hotels since 2020, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.
Protests have taken place outside asylum hotels all over the country in recent days and weeks, including one in Horley on Saturday. Protesters expressed concern that asylum seekers posed a risk to the community.
One anti-immigrant protester told the BBC that she felt her daughters’ safety was “degrading on a daily basis”.
Another stated, “I’m not saying all refugees are rapists, but their culture is different from ours.
It should not be dumped on us.” The Horley protest came after Qais Al-Aswad, a 26-year-old Four Points by Sheraton Hotel resident, was found guilty of sexual assault on August 20 at Staines Magistrates Court.
Counter-demonstrations have also taken place to defend asylum seekers.
We are not your enemy’
A South Asian woman, who is staying at a hotel in Sussex, said the protests made her relive her past trauma.
She added that she also had safety concerns inside the accommodation.
Maryam – whose name has been changed – said staff had entered her room while she was sleeping without her permission and someone had tried to unlock her door.
“People who work in this place, they don’t see you as equal human beings,” she said.
“There is systematic racial abuse. Your rights are not respected – they don’t care about your wellbeing.”
Maryam added that conditions in her room were “dirty and damp”.
Though her basic needs were being met, Samia – an asylum seeker from Tanzania – said “very cramped” conditions inside her East Sussex hotel and sometimes rotten food were making her physically weaker.
Her name has also been changed for the purposes of this report.
Protests outside nearby hotels made her feel “unwelcome” and “isolated” from the wider community, she added.
“Sometimes I feel invisible – like my life is on pause,” Samia said.
She added that some people were protesting because they had been given “false information”.
“They believe we are taking resources or that we came here for benefits, which is not true. Most of us came because our lives were in danger,” she said.
Asylum seekers receive a weekly allowance of £49.18 to cover living costs, like food, clothing and toiletries, according to the government.
Those in accommodation where meals are provided get £9.95 per week.
“We did not choose to live in a hotel,” Samia added, claiming that it would be better to house asylum seekers in communities to help them integrate.
“We are waiting for a decision on our future,” she said. “We left everything behind – our families, homes, and jobs to be safe.
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