Our new research, Coercion and Control: The treatment of women seeking asylum in hotel accommodation, shows that women who have fled gender-based violence are subjected to coercion and control in hotel accommodation, akin to patterns they have experienced in previous abusive relationships and situations.
The shocking findings include that women in hotels are:
- Routinely monitored and surveilled
- Subjected to humiliating, degrading and dehumanising behaviour by hotel staff, including sexual harassment, room intrusions and voyeurism
- Punished and threatened with eviction
- Isolated from social networks and sources of support
The impact of hotel accommodation on women’s mental health is extremely damaging. Of women surveyed:
- 91% felt anxious or depressed
- 75% felt hopeless
- 67% felt like less of a human being
- 46% were suicidal
As it enmeshes women in layers of controlling, restrictive and threatening practices, hotel accommodation perpetuates the patterns of coercion and domination that women seeking asylum thought they had escaped. Consequently, women who come to the UK in search of safety are not being supported to heal and rebuild their lives; instead, they are being further harmed and retraumatised.
But there is now a clear opportunity for change.
The Labour Government has promised to prioritise survivors of gender-based violence and ensure they receive the support they need, which we very much welcome. It is essential that that the Government includes asylum-seeking survivors within this promise – otherwise a two-tier approach will develop, with women seeking asylum, who are predominantly from racialised groups, treated as less deserving and left behind.
To address the harms of hotel accommodation and ensure that asylum-seeking women receive the support they need, we recommend the following changes:
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End the use of hotel accommodation
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Take immediate action to mitigate the harms of hotel accommodation
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Provide safe and supportive accommodation for women seeking asylum, where they heal and begin to rebuild their lives
This report is particularly important because it is the first of its kind to focus specifically on the treatment of women seeking asylum in hotels, and it was designed and carried out by a team of seven women with personal experience of the UK’s asylum system.
The research team share:
The treatment of women in hotels can be likened to putting a bird in a cage. The bird is deprived of flying wherever it wants and living the life that it chooses.
Hotel accommodation has a lasting impact on women’s self-esteem and mental health. It tells women they are not worthy of dignity and respect and prevents them from recovering from their previous trauma.
This ill treatment of women seeking asylum must stop now. Women deserve safe, supportive and healing accommodation, where they can start rebuilding their lives on their own terms. We urge the new Government to take decisive action immediately.
Andrea Vukovic, Deputy Director of Women for Refugee Women, says:
The new Government has inherited a crumbling asylum system which is actively putting women at risk. Nearly half of the women we spoke to said that hotel accommodation made them suicidal.
The Government needs to urgently get a grip on what’s happening in asylum hotels to prevent further harm. We urge the Government to end policies which have put women in harm’s way and ensure proper oversight of the private providers who are running hotels. Ultimately, the use of hotels for accommodating people seeking safety needs to end now.
Failing to do so will undermine the Government’s ambition to tackle the national emergency of violence against women. It will create a two-tier approach to supporting survivors of gender-based violence, with those seeking safety in the UK left behind.
For media enquiries, please contact our Communications Manager, Carenza Arnold on carenza@refugeewomen.co.uk or +44 (0)7518 397761. See our press release here.