Profiting From People: Inside the UK's Asylum Hotels
Our new report, Profiting from People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels, exposes the true horrors that refugees face whilst housed for years on end in asylum hotels. We’ve long known this, and now we can document the scale of these problems and amplify the voices of the people living this nightmare.
In the previous two years, we’ve worked with hundreds of people housed in hotels. We’ve heard repeatedly about the dank, squalid conditions they are forced to endure. Now we are releasing these findings. The report can be viewed here.
Our findings make for shocking reading. In early 2025, we ran a survey that found:
- 49% said their room was overcrowded, with many explaining that whole families of up to six were forced to live together in a single space.
- 80% said the food was “really bad”, and largely inedible.
- 34% reported having a medical condition or disability, yet none of them received the adjustments they needed.
- 75% had raised concerns, whether to Migrant Help, the Home Office, or directly with hotel staff. Yet in 76% of these cases, no corrective action was taken.
The case studies contained are all real, with names changed, and evidence the human cost of the failed policies of the current and previous governments.
Our report concludes by making 5 recommendations:
1.End prolonged hotel use.
2.Set and enforce minimum standards immediately, that respond to the needs of children, families and vulnerable people.
3.Invest in community housing.
4.Give people the right to work whilst their asylum claims are processed.
5.Build an asylum system based on dignity and integration, end the reliance on private contractors and bring asylum provision back under public control.
For any queries please contact our Head of Campaigning, Nick Beales, at [email protected].
In the previous two years, we’ve worked with hundreds of people housed in hotels. We’ve heard repeatedly about the dank, squalid conditions they are forced to endure. Now we are releasing these findings. The report can be viewed here.
Our findings make for shocking reading. In early 2025, we ran a survey that found:
- 49% said their room was overcrowded, with many explaining that whole families of up to six were forced to live together in a single space.
- 80% said the food was “really bad”, and largely inedible.
- 34% reported having a medical condition or disability, yet none of them received the adjustments they needed.
- 75% had raised concerns, whether to Migrant Help, the Home Office, or directly with hotel staff. Yet in 76% of these cases, no corrective action was taken.
The case studies contained are all real, with names changed, and evidence the human cost of the failed policies of the current and previous governments.
Our report concludes by making 5 recommendations:
1.End prolonged hotel use.
2.Set and enforce minimum standards immediately, that respond to the needs of children, families and vulnerable people.
3.Invest in community housing.
4.Give people the right to work whilst their asylum claims are processed.
5.Build an asylum system based on dignity and integration, end the reliance on private contractors and bring asylum provision back under public control.
For any queries please contact our Head of Campaigning, Nick Beales, at [email protected].