Comment17.11.25by Isabelle Pereira
Overcrowding, neglect and profit-driven hotels are failing asylum seekers, writes Isabelle Pereira of Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex & London
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Overcrowding, neglect and profit-driven hotels are failing asylum seekers, writes Isabelle Pereira of Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex & London #UKhousing
Imagine being forced into a single room with your entire family, your bed doubling as a desk, while rats scuttle nearby. This is daily life for asylum seekers in UK hotels.
Politicians consistently claim that asylum seekers living in UK hotels enjoy “luxury” conditions. The reality is the opposite. Our new report, Profiting From People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels, details how hotel residents face overcrowded rooms, inedible food, rat infestations and serious health risks. Families of six are forced into single rooms, while GPs routinely raise serious concerns about malnutrition in children and untreated medical conditions – issues that the government and hotel staff ignore.
The companies contracted by the Home Office to provide accommodation profit handsomely from this misery. Between September 2019 and August 2024, the Home Office’s three providers made a combined £380m profit – that’s £146 per minute.
The longer people are left in limbo, the more these companies earn, turning a protection system into a business model. While people endure this manufactured misery, far-right groups attack hotels, encouraged by politicians that have long scapegoated migrants and avoided confronting the real challenges in our deeply unequal society.
Polling shows most of the public do not buy this narrative: there is broad sympathy for those fleeing war and persecution. Public anger over housing, healthcare and the cost of living is real and justified, but it should not be directed at people seeking safety. The target should be those profiting from this suffering and the politicians who facilitate it.
“Hotel residents often face hostility rather than support from hotel staff if they dare complain about their accommodation”
The human cost is painfully clear in hotels. Our report found that three quarters of the people who had raised concerns about their accommodation – whether to the national charity Migrant Help, or directly with hotel staff – saw no action taken.
In my experience, hotel residents often face hostility rather than support from hotel staff if they dare complain about their accommodation. Many are therefore reluctant to raise concerns directly because they feel ignored, and when they do speak up, they feel it’s a losing battle.
I have witnessed residents with health conditions being denied the food they require, or being denied transport support to attend their medical appointments. When I raised concerns on their behalf, hotel staff continued to neglect the people they are meant to support. Residents are disillusioned, because they are trapped in a hostile environment where no one seems to care.
A resident from one hotel described overhearing managers speaking to another resident who was worried about the hotel closing: “When this door closes, you have to leave, so your housing problem will no longer be our problem.” The arrogance and indifference shocked my client.
Residents are frequently told to contact organisations like Migrant Help – meant to be the main avenue for raising concerns about accommodation and asylum support – but this is often ineffective, earning the charity nicknames such as “Migrant Unhelp” or “Migraine Help”.
“Councils and housing associations have the expertise to provide long-term, safe, and dignified homes—something the asylum hotel model fundamentally lacks”
These examples show that change cannot wait. Social landlords can play a critical role.
Councils and housing associations have the expertise to provide long-term, safe, and dignified homes, something the asylum hotel model fundamentally lacks. By lobbying government to end long-term hotel placements and highlighting the human and financial cost, the social housing sector can help shift policy away from short-term fixes toward sustainable, community-based solutions.
The people living in hotels are parents trying to support their families, children settling into schools and people desperate to establish themselves in their new communities. Yet the system keeps them trapped, while millionaires’ bank balances swell. The fact that the government plans to move thousands into disused military barracks at an even higher cost to “quell public disquiet” shows that the cruelty is deliberate. It is calculated.
The evidence is clear. The social housing sector cannot remain on the sidelines. It is time to invest in more stable accommodation, ensure people can rebuild their lives, end the exploitation embedded in the current system and show people who seek safety that we care about their lives and dignity.
Isabelle Pereira, caseworker, Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex & London
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