Andy Burnham is facing calls to fix Britain’s “broken” asylum system, as the new Prime Minister works out his own immigration policy over the summer.
Charities have warned that the harassment and violence faced by asylum seekers has “ramped up” across Britain amid increasing hostility to new arrivals.
Labour is pushing on with plans to close hotels by upping use of former military barracks, ex-student blocks and house in multiple occupation (HMO) flats.
However, Burnham has been warned that moving more asylum seekers into residential areas could be a “disaster” if it becomes a “flashpoint” for local anti-immigration frustration.
Asylum seekers in Aberdeen – moved out of city centre hotels and into former student flats in residential areas – told The i Paper about their daily struggles.
They said living on £49 a week given by the Home Office was tough, with some turning to food banks to survive.
They also revealed the scale of “frightening” abuse and intimidation: including being spat on in the street, having rocks thrown through windows and being told to “f*** off – go back to your own country”.
‘Someone threw a rock through the window’
Ahmad* – an asylum seeker in his 20s from South Asia – came to the UK in 2025. He spent less than a week in a hotel in London before being moved to Scotland.
He has been living with 150 other asylum seekers in a “quite crowded” former student block in Aberdeen’s Don Street since November last year.
While each person has their own small room, six people share a kitchen area and bathroom. There is no TV or wi-fi available.
It is “difficult to survive” on £49 a week, said Ahmad. “It is only very basic food I can afford. I cook with a few other people I know. We make a kind of bean stew.”
A former student accommodation block in Aberdeen which asylum seekers are now usingAhmad had hoped the Don Street student block would feel safer than in hotels, which have been the target of anti-asylum protests across the UK.
But he has been met by local people shouting at him to “go back home” outside the student block. “This doesn’t feel safe. It feels like some people are angry wherever asylum seekers have accommodation,” he said.
“There was a time when someone threw a rock through the window of the kitchen,” Ahmad added. “We have been afraid after that. It is frightening.”
“Most people in Aberdeen seem very kind. I think most people in Britain understand things aren’t easier for us. But there are not very nice people who don’t understand. Maybe they think we are taking money away from them.”
Food banks, no TV and abuse: ‘One person spat on me’
Arash* is a Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker in his 20s who came to the UK in September 2025.
He said seven people share a kitchen in each unit at the Farmers Hall student flats in Aberdeen – home to another 150 asylum seekers. There is no TV or wi-fi, and there are only three working washing machines for everyone, he said.
Arash said the flats were better than a hotel because “at least I can make my own food and have some freedom”. He added: “But I have to go to food banks for some things, because £49 a week is not enough for everything.”
Former student blocks at Farmers Hall (left) and Don Street (right) in Aberdeen (Photos: The i Paper/Google Maps)Arash said most people in Aberdeen have been “welcoming”, but some had targeted asylum seekers for abuse.
“Since I came to Farmers Hall [student block], I had one person spit on me. I had one person say, ‘I’ll remember your face’,” he said.
“I think some people are racist. I think some people just don’t understand how difficult things are for us. We didn’t leave our families for fun.”
‘People follow you and shout f**k off – go home’
Moussa* from West Africa is an asylum seeker who came to the UK in 2024. He said living on £49 a week meant “you can only afford the most basic food – it’s not enough even to buy any new clothes or shoes”.
Although he recently moved elsewhere, Moussa was at the Don Street student blocks for around nine months. He said he was regularly followed outside the building by young men shouting abuse.
“There are people who follow you and harass you, and shout horrible things like, ‘Why did you come here? And things like, ‘F*** off – go back to your own country’.
Anti-asylum protests have taken place in cities across Scotland (Peter Jolly/Northpix)“Sometimes I have had to run away,” added Moussa. “It is mostly younger men. I think they don’t understand the problems we face. They think we get things easily, which isn’t true.
“I think some of it is racist, because they seemed to start following me just because of my skin colour.”
Unite the Clans AAIM (Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration) has held protests outside asylum hotels and ex-student blocks in the city over the past year.
But sources working with asylum seekers in Aberdeen said the harassment they faced was more regular and widespread than the organised protests.
A spokesperson for Refugee Action said asylum seekers had been the target of “violent, racist abuse” for decades. But this has “ramped up in the past five years”, they said.
“Our political leaders must bin their demonising rhetoric against people seeking asylum, which is fuelling the violence against minoritised communities on our streets,” they added.
Student digs were better than hotels, but were not a long-term solution, Refugee Action added, arguing that Burnham should consider expanding social housing to include asylum seekers.
Could Labour regret push to shut hotels?
Maxwell Marlow, public affairs director of the right-wing Adam Smith Institute think-tank, said Labour may come to regret pushing to shut asylum hotels.
He called hotels “the least-worst option” because they are usually contained in town centres, away from residential areas.
Anything in residential areas, whether HMOs or student blocks, has a “potential to be a disaster” because it becomes a “potential flashpoint for tensions”.
Marlow added: “You don’t want to see intimidation or abuse at all – it’s not healthy. But local people will be frustrated at the cost of providing accommodation, the cost of services and the failure to tackle what they see as illegal migration, regardless of where they are housed.”
Earlier this month, soon after arriving at Westminster, Burnham voted in favour of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s controversial migration legislation. Her bill seeks to streamline the asylum appeals, and tighten the application of human rights law in deportation cases.
More than 200 charities have written to Burnham since he became Prime Minister, urging him to “fix the broken asylum system” and end the “performative cruelty”. They want him to stop using ex-military sites, and ditch changes making it more difficult for refugees to settle permanently.
A Home Office spokesperson said abuse of asylum seekers was “completely unacceptable”. They also said concerns of communities were “central” to its plans.
“Which is why we are working with local authorities and others to make the system fairer by housing asylum seekers in basic accommodation, including ex-military sites.”
Police Scotland’s Superintendent Simon Reid said there had been “a number of arrests” in Aberdeen related to “disorder during protest activity and hate crimes”. He called on those targeted by hate crimes to report it to the force.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
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