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Research has shown that a common claim about the way asylum-seekers are treated in the United Kingdom is false.
Here’s The Guardian:
“Asylum seekers living in hotels have reported rats, overcrowding and food so bad it leads to deficiencies, research has found.
“Profiting From People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels, a report from the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (Ramfel), draws on work with 493 people housed in asylum hotels between January 2023 and February 2025.
“Asylum seekers reported overcrowded conditions, including families of six living in a single room. Many described the food as largely inedible and others reported having a medical condition or disability with no adjustments made for them.
“The report has calculated that the Home Office’s three accommodation providers made a combined profit of £380m between September 2019 and August 2024. That equates to £146 a minute over five years. Despite ministers’ pledges to close asylum hotels as soon as possible, the report found the overall number had gone down by just three since Labour came to power.
“The Ramfel report found that asylum hotels were so overcrowded that if one person in a family room sat at a small table other family members only had space to stand up and that beds had to be used as dining tables and desks for children to do homework.
“Rats were common, with one family counting five in their room, while the food provided was either burnt or undercooked and frozen in the middle. The report included extracts from GP letters to the Home Office, raising alarm about the health of some in asylum hotels. Malnutrition and weight loss, particularly among children, was a recurring concern.”
So the hotels asylum-seekers are being housed in aren’t the five-star luxuries we were all led to believe they were. What a shocker!
Yes, I’m being sarcastic. It’s not a shock at all. We’re being told the outsourcing companies that took contracts to house asylum-seekers have spent as little as possible on them, extracting as much profit as they possibly could at the expense of human dignity and health.
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The timing is hugely conspicuous: The Ramfel report’s findings directly counter the long-running narrative that asylum hotels are indulgent luxuries.
It was a Conservative talking point for years, repeated heavily by ministers, MPs and aligned media.
It framed hotel use as an expensive indulgence created by “illegal migration”, and it helped justify harsh deterrence policies.
Since Labour took office, that party has instead emphasised cost, “illegal migration”, and the need to close hotels quickly.
But by continuing the outsourcing model, repeating Conservative framing about pressure on communities, and pursuing military sites, Labour has implicitly benefited from the old narrative’s lingering public perception: that hotels are both costly and overly comfortable.
The contractors certainly contributed to the impression of high-priced accommodation.
Daily room rates paid through Home Office contracts were substantial, and the companies involved had every incentive to describe costs in ways that justified high invoices.
Those figures were often presented in public discourse without context about the actual conditions, helping fuel the myth of comfort while disguising profit margins.
The documented conditions – rats, severe overcrowding, inedible food, and malnutrition – instead expose a system that is both degrading and wasteful.
Set against that, the Home Office is currently pushing a shift to military bases – and this is why the timing of the Ramfel report’s release seems conspicuous.
Publishing a report that makes the existing system look untenable creates a context in which ministers can argue that moving people onto military barracks is a necessary, even compassionate, alternative.
It reframes the debate away from whether military sites are appropriate and towards whether they are less bad than the hotels.
That is a helpful narrative if the goal is to normalise placing hundreds of vulnerable people in quasi-detention environments.
The public focus on the private contractors’ combined profit – £380 million over five years, or £146 a minute – also sets up a contrast that works in the government’s favour: large sums paid to corporations versus the “cheaper” option of bases.
It diverts attention from the fact that both models stem from the same underlying policy failure – the decision to reduce processing of asylum claims to a trickle while the number of migrants making them increased to a torrent.
The Liberal Democrats have said it would be much more productive to task more civil servants with processing claims, saying the backlog could be cleared within six months.
Labour says increased processing is part of its strategy.
Well, it’s November 11 as I write this. Shall we check the situation again on May 11, 2026?
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Rats, malnutrition and overcrowding – not luxury – are common at asylum hotels
Share this post:
Research has shown that a common claim about the way asylum-seekers are treated in the United Kingdom is false.
Here’s The Guardian:
“Asylum seekers living in hotels have reported rats, overcrowding and food so bad it leads to deficiencies, research has found.
“Profiting From People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels, a report from the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (Ramfel), draws on work with 493 people housed in asylum hotels between January 2023 and February 2025.
“Asylum seekers reported overcrowded conditions, including families of six living in a single room. Many described the food as largely inedible and others reported having a medical condition or disability with no adjustments made for them.
“The report has calculated that the Home Office’s three accommodation providers made a combined profit of £380m between September 2019 and August 2024. That equates to £146 a minute over five years. Despite ministers’ pledges to close asylum hotels as soon as possible, the report found the overall number had gone down by just three since Labour came to power.
“The Ramfel report found that asylum hotels were so overcrowded that if one person in a family room sat at a small table other family members only had space to stand up and that beds had to be used as dining tables and desks for children to do homework.
“Rats were common, with one family counting five in their room, while the food provided was either burnt or undercooked and frozen in the middle. The report included extracts from GP letters to the Home Office, raising alarm about the health of some in asylum hotels. Malnutrition and weight loss, particularly among children, was a recurring concern.”
So the hotels asylum-seekers are being housed in aren’t the five-star luxuries we were all led to believe they were. What a shocker!
Yes, I’m being sarcastic. It’s not a shock at all. We’re being told the outsourcing companies that took contracts to house asylum-seekers have spent as little as possible on them, extracting as much profit as they possibly could at the expense of human dignity and health.
Support Vox Political!
With social media algorithms acting as gatekeepers – allowing users to read only what their owners want them to, sites like Vox Political need the support of our readers like never before.
You can help by making a donation:
https://Ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
The timing is hugely conspicuous: The Ramfel report’s findings directly counter the long-running narrative that asylum hotels are indulgent luxuries.
It was a Conservative talking point for years, repeated heavily by ministers, MPs and aligned media.
It framed hotel use as an expensive indulgence created by “illegal migration”, and it helped justify harsh deterrence policies.
Since Labour took office, that party has instead emphasised cost, “illegal migration”, and the need to close hotels quickly.
But by continuing the outsourcing model, repeating Conservative framing about pressure on communities, and pursuing military sites, Labour has implicitly benefited from the old narrative’s lingering public perception: that hotels are both costly and overly comfortable.
The contractors certainly contributed to the impression of high-priced accommodation.
Daily room rates paid through Home Office contracts were substantial, and the companies involved had every incentive to describe costs in ways that justified high invoices.
Those figures were often presented in public discourse without context about the actual conditions, helping fuel the myth of comfort while disguising profit margins.
The documented conditions – rats, severe overcrowding, inedible food, and malnutrition – instead expose a system that is both degrading and wasteful.
Set against that, the Home Office is currently pushing a shift to military bases – and this is why the timing of the Ramfel report’s release seems conspicuous.
Publishing a report that makes the existing system look untenable creates a context in which ministers can argue that moving people onto military barracks is a necessary, even compassionate, alternative.
It reframes the debate away from whether military sites are appropriate and towards whether they are less bad than the hotels.
That is a helpful narrative if the goal is to normalise placing hundreds of vulnerable people in quasi-detention environments.
The public focus on the private contractors’ combined profit – £380 million over five years, or £146 a minute – also sets up a contrast that works in the government’s favour: large sums paid to corporations versus the “cheaper” option of bases.
It diverts attention from the fact that both models stem from the same underlying policy failure – the decision to reduce processing of asylum claims to a trickle while the number of migrants making them increased to a torrent.
The Liberal Democrats have said it would be much more productive to task more civil servants with processing claims, saying the backlog could be cleared within six months.
Labour says increased processing is part of its strategy.
Well, it’s November 11 as I write this. Shall we check the situation again on May 11, 2026?
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