Asylum seekers with first-hand experience of hotels have revealed the “miserable” living conditions they face, amid anger over the huge profits made by the private companies that run them.
Migrants have spoken out about cramped accommodation, with five people sharing a single room, children catching head lice and “dirty” bedding.
One former asylum seeker said the food was sometimes still partially frozen, while another said the meals were poor quality: “We would call it smelly chicken, because it was not fresh at all, it was reheated.”
Life in asylum hotels is under fresh scrutiny after it emerged that one of the big companies running these sites for the Home Office has made £187m in profit.
Clearsprings Ready Homes has made the vast sum since winning the asylum accommodation contract for the South of England in 2019, according to its accounts.
Refugee charities say asylum seekers are staying in “appalling” hotels, adding that there have been reports of bedbug infestations as well as damp and mould. They called on the Government to house more migrants within communities.
Reform UK, the Conservatives and anti-asylum activists are also urging Labour to hasten the end of hotel use, after protests were held outside sites across the country.
Asylum seekers currently staying in hotels, former residents and support workers have told The i Paper what life is really like inside.
An example of some of the food available in asylum hotels in the South of EnglandFamily of five stuck in one room
“The conditions were not good,” said Bita (not her real name), a 40-year-old from Afghanistan who was housed in a hotel managed by Clearsprings Ready Homes in the South of England.
She, her husband and their three children spent around 18 months there from the end of 2023.
The family of five initially had to share one room. It took six months before they were given two separate rooms.
“The first room we had was dirty, the bedding and carpet had not been cleaned. Two of my children got head lice, and I had to shave their hair to get rid of the problem.”
Bita said the food was “bad”, with dinners made up of chicken, rice, bread and pasta.
People who stayed in hotels have described the food as ‘bad’“Sometimes it was not reheated properly, parts were still frozen,” she claimed. “There was very little vegetables or fresh food.”
The family lived on less than £50 a week. Each person gets just over £9 per week if their meals are provided by their accommodation. Bita saved up enough to buy a small electric hob, plugging it into the bathroom so she could cook some vegetables for her children.
“It made my children happy. The other mothers would cry because they didn’t get enough fresh food for their babies.”
The electric hob used by Bita’s family to cook vegetables in the asylum hotelThe family were moved to a one bedroom flat a few months ago, but are still awaiting the result of their asylum claim. “It was stressful to live this way for a long time,” said Bita of the hotel experience.
Protests at hotels mean ‘living in fear’
The summer saw protests take place outside dozens of asylum hotels across the country. Demonstrators say they are worried about community safety and have also shared resentment about the support asylum seekers receive.
Kasun (not his real name) said the most stressful thing about hotel life was the “scary” protests, which made him uneasy about going outside very often.
“I already have enough demons in my head to deal with and these kind of things add fuel to that fire,” said the 28-year-old from Sri Lanka, who has been living on £9 a week in a Clearsprings-run hotel in the South of England since December 2023.
“So it is difficult to live in fear. Most of the people in his hotel, including me, are stuck in their room all day.”
Kasun said some dinners are made up of “soggy chips and very mismatching dishes” such as “rice with burger patties”. He added: “There are some days I don’t eat those meals.”
Some people said they did not always eat the meals provided to them‘Smelly chicken’ was inedible
Mo Naeimi, who lived in the Thistle Barbican Hotel in London for around 18 months between April 2022 and September 2023, also found some of the food inedible.
“For dinner, it was almost always chicken. We would call it smelly chicken, because it was not fresh at all, it was reheated. I couldn’t eat it after a while,” said the 29-year-old from Iran.
Naeimi – who was granted leave to remain in the UK – now works as an activity administrator for a London charity, helping asylum seekers and other vulnerable people.
“Conditions are miserable,” he said of asylum hotels. “I have heard from people I work with now that there are sometimes three or four single people sharing a room. Some have said the rooms have been damp, and there have been mice.”
Naeimi said it would be better if councils were given more responsibility – and some extra funding – to house asylum seekers. He believes that “private companies just don’t care about asylum seekers, and they are making big profits”.
He also said the protests outside hotels were causing fear among asylum seekers. “I spoke to one person who hadn’t left the hotel for three months. They were worried about safety. They feel they have to hide.”
Mo Naeimi, an asylum seeker from Iran, now works as an activity administrator for a London charityWhile Clearsprings Ready Homes manages asylum accommodation in the South of England and Wales, Serco covers the North West, the Midlands and East of England. The Mears Group covers Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North East.
The “common complaint” at hotels was about the quality of food, according to a 2024 report on asylum accommodation by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The watchdog said assessing standards was difficult because Home Office record-keeping was “not fit for purpose”.
Liberal Democrat MP Paul Kohler, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, recently told the BBC that the profits made by Clearsprings Ready Homes and other providers were “obscene”.
Kohler said hotels were more costly than long-term housing in the community, and that private companies had been “allowed to run roughshod” with the contracts that benefited them the most.
The i Paper understands there is a cap on profits in the asylum accommodation providers’ contracts. Profits above an agreed level are shared back with the Home Office following an independent audit.
‘Bed bugs, mice, damp, mould’
Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, said the charity had helped asylum seekers in “appalling” conditions in hotels all over the UK.
“They’re stuck in crowded rooms with others they don’t know, sometimes from different countries. Their rooms are often not that clean,” he said, adding that the food “is often nutritionally very poor”.
“We’ve been aware of infestations like bed bugs, mice and damp and mouldy conditions. It’s reflected across the country.”
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Layla Hussain, advocacy officer at the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London, said the poor quality hotels were “holding pens, with companies such as Clearsprings, Mears and Serco profiting off this human misery”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has promised to end hotel use by 2029. But ministers are under pressure from rival parties – and Labour MPs – to move much more quickly.
The i Paper has reported that Home Office contractors are encouraging private landlords to lease their houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) as part of the push to move migrants out of hotels.
Care4Calais also said it would cheaper to house more people in the community. “It takes some of the toxicity awful from a focal point like a hotel, and it allows for better integration into communities,” said Smith.
The Government is looking at a range of cheaper options for asylum housing – including ex-military and industrial sites.
A Home Office spokesperson said the department had “cut nearly £1bn in hotel spending”, and remained “committed to close all asylum hotels” by 2029.
Clearsprings Ready Homes declined to comment, though the company has previously said meals were “nutritionally assessed” and met “dietary requirements”.
Serco also declined to comment. The Mears Group said it provided “safe, habitable and fit for purpose accommodation in line with the standards set out in our contract with the Home Office”.
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