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Afran’s story - reflecting on current policy initiatives, in conversation with an asylum seeker

  • 6 min read |
  • Posted by Signe
  • On 17 January 2025

There has been much focus on the ‘small boats’ in the media for some time now. Stopping desperate people from arriving on our shores seems to be the holy grail of solving the pressures on the asylum system, reducing the state bill for housing asylum claimants in hotels, and regaining some goodwill from the public. So called prevention strategies have famously included deterrents like sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, although that has been cut short before anyone actually went.

At the same time there has been a lot of talk about homelessness, particularly at this time of year. The appalling conditions people endure in Temporary Accommodation (TA), the plight of children spending years without the stability of a home, and the Local Authorities (LA) buckling under the ever increasing pressure on their budgets; these are issues that are beginning to capture the public imagination.

Increasingly there are overlaps between the Home Office (responsible for the asylum system) and the Department for Housing Communities and Local Government (responsible for homelessness), as they try to navigate how to help some of the most vulnerable people in the middle of a housing crisis.

Collaboration is needed across Government Departments

The people coming here to seek asylum are currently predominantly housed in hotels, but also in HMOs and other hostel type accommodation that is typically used for people who have presented as homeless to their LA and are owed a duty of care.

The pressures on housing are so high that the two systems effectively compete over whatever cheap accommodation is available, creating a race to the bottom that involves not only LAs across the country, but also different government departments. Add to this the decisions made around benefits (DWP) and public services spending (Treasury), all of which affects the people trying to navigate this system through a crisis, and the level of complication emerges.

It is therefore encouraging that the new government has created a cross-departmental ‘ending homelessness unit’ under the Deputy Prime Minister. Collaboration and policy cohesion across departments will literally save money and lives. It’s a no-brainer.

We are pleased to have been invited as expert contributors to this group. We increasingly see asylum seekers in our frontline work with people in TA. While it is a completely different pathway, asylum seekers, and people experiencing homelessness, often end up in very similar situations. Sometimes they are one and the same.

Being stuck in a small space is hard on their mental health. Even if people don’t come with trauma, they would become traumatized. It’s a semi-free prison

Afran

Afran’s experience

Being housed in a hotel is no holiday. Afran, an asylum seeker from Iraq, arrived in England after a dangerous journey that culminated in a small boat with fifty people crossing the Channel. He arrived ready to work, but instead he has spent more than three years waiting for a decision on his asylum claim, which prohibits him from working. Two and a half years were spent in a hotel in a provincial town in England.

The accommodation was old, poor, not well maintained, dirty. Most of us had bedbugs. Several people, including me, had scabies. People had skin problems just from sleeping there.

In the hotel he received £9 a week, he had three daily delivered meals, and was placed in a room that was so small he couldn’t do the work-out that would have been beneficial for his physical and mental health. He was not allowed visitors, and only staff were allowed to use the microwaves in the basement.

The staff were not polite with the asylum seekers, they were abusing them, especially if they didn’t speak the language. I was lucky I could speak the language. The food, you would just open the lid and let out the smell for 2-3 minutes, and then after that you would eat it just to not starve basically. It was horrible. I would go days without food.

Disused care homes and former student accommodation

The Home Office has suggested using disused care homes and student digs to house asylum seekers who are waiting for their claim to be settled, saying this could save millions of pounds spent on hotels every day

Although by no means perfect, this is an interesting idea. After two and a half years, Afran was told the hotel was to close down and they would all be moved. Approximately 35 were moved to two different locations in London; one of them was another hotel, much like the one they had left, whereas the other used to be student accommodation. Afran got lucky and ended up in the latter with a handful of others.

Where his hotel accommodation had been so small it only had room for a bed, he now has the space to work out every day, he has a small kitchen and is able to have guests till 10pm. There is even a room that has been designed to be accessible for wheelchair users.

He doesn’t get food delivered, instead he gets £50 a week on the basis that he gets his own food. He is delighted to be able to cook his own meals. He is still waiting for a decision, there is a big backlog of asylum cases waiting to be settled, but the wait has become bearable. For Afran, this has been a very positive move.

Successful asylum claimants ending up homeless

Another positive step taken by the new government is that successful asylum seekers now have 56 days to find a place to live, and the means to pay for it, before they have to leave their asylum accommodation. This has been doubled from 28 days. While it is still a tall order to set yourself up with a bank account, relevant benefits and/or a job, and a place to live in 56 days – all this in a foreign country where you may not understand the system and have limited language skills – this is a very welcome shift towards a more humane treatment of people who have been successful in their asylum claim.

I have friends now that are sleeping just in tents outside Victoria Station [after being successful in their asylum claim]. To find new accommodation, to register for universal credit, find a job, it will be a hard thing to do if you don’t speak the language

Some of the people in these tents will find their way into the hostels and B&Bs that house other people experiencing homelessness. These are people who have been granted asylum because the Home Office has decided they are right to claim that they are unable to return to their country of origin for fear of persecution. But rather than relief and a chance to start a new life, being given refugee status is too often a short-cut to destitution.

What keeps happening recently is, people that have been granted leave to remain, they’ve been made homeless at the same time. We’ve had loads of that.

Justlife frontline worker

The ‘squid games’ of homelessness

Immigrants still only make up a small proportion of the homeless population, but the number is rising. 4,840 households with newly granted refugees were homeless between January and March this year, which is 348.1% more than over the same period last year.

There are many routes that lead people to the shores of LA housing departments seeking the safety of a home. These routes can be traced back to different policy initiatives and government departments. Unpicking this tangled mess is no small task, but it is essential we do our best to minimise the continuing trauma, uncertainty, and lack of basic safety and dignity for some of the most vulnerable members of society. It is a grim competition between needs that may be fine for entertainment shows like the squid games, when watched from the comfort of your own home.

But in real life this situation is unacceptable and can only be addressed through joined up and long term thinking, while some of the most egregious policy drivers of homelessness are addressed in the short term to stem the tide of human suffering. We know this makes financial sense too.

You can read more here about our short and longer term policy suggestions.

Except where otherwise noted, quotes are taken from a conversation with Afran. This is not his real name.

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