In recent months the UK has seen a wave of anti-immigrant protests outside hotels used by the government to house refugees and asylum seekers.
Healthcare workers treating asylum seekers have told The BMJ that the febrile political climate is provoking fear among people who already face high barriers to receiving healthcare. Furthermore, doctors and others treating them are being targeted with harassment.
The protests have spread after a flashpoint at the Bell Hotel site in Epping, which houses 138 male asylum seekers awaiting asylum judgments. The hotel has become a focal point for clashes between far right and antiracist protesters since the arrest of an Ethiopian resident in July. Hadush Kebatu was subsequently found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl and a woman.1
The case sparked protests, some of them violent, and these have spread across the UK, with a further 104 premises that housed asylum seekers2 experiencing demonstrations and unrest. Tensions are also leading to secrecy in the Home Office and its housing contractors about where they send people, owing to safety fears for residents and staff.
At the end of June 32 059 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, known as “contingency accommodation,”3 in the UK. Asylum seekers are housed in such accommodation—usually recommissioned hotel rooms, grouped into all male accommodation or family, female, and LGBTQ+ accommodation—until they are granted asylum or they leave the country after their application is refused. They also remain in these hotels when …
