DEPENDENCE on hotels as a stopgap solution to housing asylum-seekers is neither compassionate nor sustainable, Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative) told the House of Lords on Monday.
He was asking the Government when it intended to stop the practice: it was a difficulty that resonated deeply with communities across the country, he said: “It’s not nearly fiscal responsibility, but about rebuilding public confidence in our immigration system, fostering community cohesion, and ensuring Britain stays a nation of each compassion and order.”
He described the fee, £8 million a day, as “staggering expenditure” and “indefensible”, and called on the Government to speed up the clearing of the asylum backlog and tackle illegal crossings at their source.
Baroness Lister (Labour) feared that hotels had develop into “an obsession of the Right, utilized by some to whip up hostility to asylum-seekers”.
The impression given was that these were “living a snug life in four-star hotels. Not so,” she said. Recent reports had painted an image of “terrible living conditions, unhygienic and dilapidated accommodation”, overcrowding, and lack of privacy, very poor and inadequate food, and accommodation that was often unsuitable for kids.
The Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, reminded the Lords of events in Rotherham last August, when a bunch of asylum-seekers staying in a Holiday Inn Express were targeted (News, 9 August 2024). At the request of the Mayor of South Yorkshire, he had later arranged for a church in Sheffield to supply sanctuary to a different group.
“Quite simply, it subjects asylum-seekers to danger in the event that they are placed in hotels in visible numbers,” Dr Wilcox said. “Dispersed accommodation offers greater protection and, for that reason, we should always move to that provision as swiftly as possible.”
The Bishop also raised the query of access to support services for unaccompanied children. “Asylum-seekers themselves are usually not in charge for the strain on the general public purse,” he said. “In any case, each is a person created within the image and likeness of God, to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect — especially in view of their very real vulnerability.”
Lord Hanson, Minister of State on the Home Office, agreed with the Bishop and others that the whole costs were “simply eye-watering and never an excellent use of taxpayers’ money. They are usually not even an excellent way of ensuring the security and security of the people in these hotels, particularly women fleeing persecution,” he said.
