Two charities are taking the Home Office to court over overcrowded migrant hotels, which they have described as “prison-like” and say are forcing trafficking and torture survivors to share rooms with strangers.
The Helen Bamber Foundation and Freedom from Torture accuse the government of leaving survivors of severe forms of violence “at risk of serious harm in harmful and unsuitable asylum accommodation”.
Their case, which will be heard on Tuesday and Wednesday, challenges policy changes that they argue make it much harder for charities to prevent survivors from being forced to live in large accommodation sites or to share rooms with strangers.
The Home Office is accused of failing to consult the charities before making the changes, which were brought in by the previous Conservative government at the start of 2024, but continue to be defended by the current Labour government.
The action comes as the government face growing criticism after home secretary Shabana Mahmood unveiled sweeping plans to overhaul the UK’s asylum system on Monday, which will see the government overhaul human rights laws in a bid to ramp up deportations.
The Helen Bamber Foundation said: “Trafficking and torture survivors who come to the UK to find protection have fled some of the worst forms of human cruelty. They are often traumatised, isolated and at high risk of being exploited again. A sense of safety and security is incredibly important for them to recover.
“But since 2019, the Home Office has been placing them in ‘prison-like’ asylum sites or in overcrowded hotels where they are forced to share rooms with strangers. These conditions remind them of their past experiences of abuse and can be re-traumatising.”
They warned that the changes “significantly affect survivors’ mental health, feelings of safety, and the ability of human rights organisations to support survivors in their recovery”.
Jacob, a torture and abuse survivor who suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), said he is living in constant fear, worried that he might be forced to share a room again.
He told The Independent: “I was so tired, and I needed to rest and sleep... I would rather move outside London than be in a room again with strangers. I don’t know anyone there, but I will bear it... You can’t imagine how I felt in that room – I couldn’t sleep, I was triggered because I felt unsafe.”
Jacob, who is in his early 40s and from Eritrea, said he was struggling to eat, unable to start the therapy he needs, and even began self-harming as his distress around his unstable housing mounted. He said he was even faced with the choice between a shared room with a stranger or homelessness last year.
The Helen Bamber Foundation said it asked the Home Office to exempt Jacob – who cannot share his surname for safety reasons – from sharing a room due to his severe mental health symptoms, but the request was rejected. However, it said hotel staff have now told him no one will be moving into his room after all – but the anxiety still looms large.
Prior to February 2024, the Helen Bamber Foundation said there was a protective presumption that survivors of torture, trafficking or other forms of serious physical, psychological or sexual violence, and those with disabilities, should be exempted from room sharing. Then, in a move the charity described as “sudden and without warning”, the government “fundamentally changed” the Allocation of Asylum Accommodation policy, which determines how and where people seeking refuge are housed by the Home Office during their claim process.
In June this year, the Home Office published a new version of the policy, keeping the changes that the charities condemn as “unlawful”.
Helen Bamber Foundation and Freedom from Torture accuse the home secretary of having “breached her duty to consult with stakeholders” and “failed to adequately assess the impact of the changes on survivors”.
Mwa Mbuyi Kapinga, a survivor of torture and recognised refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: “People make a decision about your life very easily. They don’t consider everything… They don’t understand that it is your life. You are a number. You are a statistic. They think it’s the same story for everybody, which is not the case. They don’t see your vulnerability. They don’t see the impact of it on your life.”
She spent seven and a half years living in asylum accommodation, including sharing a house with 15 people and her bedroom with a stranger at one point.
She said: “You are exhausted like that, you close your eyes. And then someone comes to switch on the light, whilst you are already struggling with nightmares – so you think something is happening, so you jump, you think ‘they’re here to catch me or they want to kill me’.”
She added: “It was really filthy. Nowhere to put your food. I spent three days without being able to cook, only eating cereal. It was so dirty I didn’t even shower.”
Her living situation left her struggling to the point that she became suicidal, she said. “When a survivor is struggling in such situations like I was in, you feel like you are on the edge.”
Natasha Tsangarides, associate director of Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said: “The previous government allowed an unforgivable crisis to develop in asylum accommodation and survivors of torture and trauma are paying the price. We are bitterly disappointed that the government has decided to uphold this damaging policy, which continues to cause harm to people who’ve already been through so much. It’s time for those in power to listen to the experts and provide safe and secure housing for people seeking sanctuary.”
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
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