Written evidence submitted by Dr Emmaleena Käkelä & Professor Daniela Sime, Department of Social Work & Social Policy, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (AAC0037)

Introduction

This submission draws evidence from research into the compounding impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and immigration system overhaul on migrant women and families (2022-2024)[i]. GEN-MIGRA is an international study which worked across Brazil, Poland, Germany and the UK to examine the gendered vulnerabilities and migrant women’s agency in the face of intersectional inequalities. This submission presents evidence collected by the UK team through interviews with third sector professionals including legal aid and community practitioners, asylum seeking women and their families. Additionally, our submission draws from a four-year qualitative study led by Dr Käkelä which worked with 32 asylum seeking and refugee women to examine their continued vulnerabilities to female genital mutilation and other forms of gender-based violence in the UK (2017-2021)[ii].

While the provision of asylum accommodation has more recently emerged as a key policy issue following the use of military barracks, hotels and the Bibby Stockholm barge, the evidence on harms in the asylum accommodation is not new. Our recent research findings highlight failings in the provision of asylum accommodation which undermine individuals’ safety, emotional wellbeing, social networks and access to essential services. Crucially, these issues have only been amplified by the inadequate support provided to asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase in use of new forms of privatised asylum accommodation.

The delivery of asylum accommodation: Safeguarding and supporting the welfare of people in asylum accommodation

1)      Lack of safeguarding

The management of privatised asylum accommodation, compounded by poor asylum decision-making characterised by a “culture of disbelief”[iii], exposes vulnerable individuals in the asylum system to homelessness:

The Home Office made a very big mistake when they took the contract from the Glasgow City Council and gave it to individuals. They put people in their houses and once the asylum appeal has been exhausted, they just throw you out on the street, you know, they don’t care. With the Glasgow City Council, they would keep you on, while your solicitor was still struggling to put in another claim, but the private people [i.e. contractors], they don’t wait. (Third sector interviewee)

These issues create particular risks for asylum seeking women, who face heightened risks of domestic abuse, rape and prostitution during the asylum process:

Some of our women are in prostitution, there’s this place, there’s this flat, that’s where our women they go, and most of them they are asylum seekers, because they have no recourse to public funds and when their appeal has been exhausted, they become destitute. And through that, people take advantage of them. So, they get into prostitution and there’s no way out and the money that they give them is very little. (Third sector interviewee)

The case of the Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in Glasgow demonstrates safeguarding failures also in asylum accommodation.  In 2021, several asylum seeking mothers and their babies were moved to a Mears Group managed bedsit Unit, which had previously been declared unsuitable for housing single men. The Unit was found to pose significant risks to maternal and infant mental health and children’s development, breeching their fundamental human rights[iv]. Experiences of living in asylum accommodation are frequently characterised by a profound sense of isolation, furthered by the provision of accommodation on a no-choice basis. Our research found that some of these women were moved into the Unit very suddenly, creating significant stress and anxiety and undermining their sense of safety and mental health.

In the face of welfare exclusionism, asylum seekers disproportionately rely on third sector for support and advocacy to meet their basic needs and access their rights[v]. These essential connections are undermined by the erratic and unpredictable approach to dispersal, and lack of proactive support from private providers:

Sometimes we would just stop hearing from women, and there’s only so much we can do if their phone rings out or it says this number doesn’t exist, we don’t know what could have happened to them… You can go to their home and knock on the door. But if they've been moved to another accommodation and their phone is lost or numbers change, then there's no way for us to access that person. (Third sector interviewee)

Additionally, our data highlights significant failings in the security of such units and other forms of asylum accommodation:

We went to deliver food there [the Mother and Baby Unit] a few times and we just walked in, there was no one at the door to ask us, who are you? We just walked in. If it was somebody else who just went inside, that's quite dangerous, they could have just managed to do something. (Third sector interviewee)

We had some women, they were placed in accommodation in areas that were really dangerous. I went to this woman to give a food parcel, and she was a single mom, and the flat block was just, you know, you could smell the weed and everything, and I was like, this is a young woman by herself. It was quite unsafe and she's not from here. You could see exploitation being done very easily. (Third sector interviewee)

Asylum seeking women’s feelings of unsafety and security are also undermined by bad practices on behalf of housing officers. Women shared with us examples of housing officers entering their homes unannounced, which can be particularly frightening for individuals fleeing gender-based persecution, or using dismissive and patronising language during the visits when women raised safety concerns.

2)      Inadequate housing and support

Our findings highlight inadequacies in asylum accommodation reported by asylum seeking families and third sector organisations, including women and children being housed in overcrowded conditions. The aforementioned Mother and Baby Unit demonstrates such conditions, where asylum seeking women and children were housed in cramped spaces which were not safe for children to crawl or play in.

The lack of cultural and trauma-informed approach in the provision of asylum accommodation creates further dangers to individuals. Placing individuals from the same ethnic community or country in the same accommodation without consideration can create further tensions or risks of honour-based violence, depending on the circumstances which they are fleeing. Our evidence also highlights women being accommodated in hotels for long periods of time, living surrounded with strangers and relying on catering that does not meet their dietary or cultural needs:

A lot of my clients say that the food is completely inadequate that they can’t eat it and children don't get proper food for their needs. On top of that, you've got different support rates from the Home Office, the rates are drastically lower for people that are accommodated in hotels, because the justification behind that is that we will give you food, so you don't need any money for food. So, you're talking £8 a week for an adult. You get a few extra pounds if you have children, but it's completely inhumane. (Legal aid practitioner)

At first I was in London for two days, and after that I was moved here. And it was really hard to be in a hostel, that was really disgusting. And frightening. Because it’s mixed people that you don’t know. (Asylum seeker interviewee)

This is particularly concerning, as our evidence shows hotel accommodation is also used to house pregnant women with complex support needs. The issue of inadequate housing pre-dates the pandemic; our participants shared examples of living without hot water or water at all, lack of essential furniture or being accommodated in homes without working locks or which were unsuitable for small children, despite asking their Housing Officers to rectify these issues. Additionally, Housing Officers were said to often approach women with hostility and suspicion, dismissing their concerns and questioning why they had belongings such as mobile phones or clothes gifted by friends or charities.

Especially at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital exclusion of individuals in asylum accommodation contributed to worsening mental health. The closure of “brick and mortar” support services, compounded by the lack of internet in asylum accommodation, created substantial barriers for vulnerable individuals to access peer groups, mental health support, asylum advocacy and legal aid, as well as essential support, including home schooling support and ESOL classes. These inequalities were most keenly felt by children and women, especially for survivors of trauma, and women who were faced with the rise of domestic abuse and hate crime during the pandemic. These issues have continued in the aftermath of the pandemic, with the continued use of hotel accommodation and chaotic dispersal to isolated locations or places with limited networks of support or access to third sector organisations.

3)      Establishment of new asylum accommodation, without proactive community cohesion and integration support

Asylum seekers face heightened risks of anti-social behaviour and abuse from neighbours and the wider community, including verbal abuse and threats of physical violence, as well publicised cases of attacks on asylum seekers or hotels used to host them have also shown. Asylum seekers are frequently displaced in deprived neighbourhoods, where they face being scapegoated for the disadvantage felt by local communities:

Two days after moving to the flat we were living in, our neighbour wrote on our door that he wanted us out. So, I was with my two younger sisters, they were younger teens, coping with that, trying not to scare them. It’s really tough, trying to make a home somewhere… they [i.e. locals] don’t want you. (Asylum seeker interviewee)

We are taking criticism on the streets, ‘go home, go back to your country, you monkey’. All these other things you have to pass through on probably a daily basis. (Asylum seeker interviewee)

The current approach to asylum accommodation represents “social division by design”[vi], as dispersal without community cohesion work furthers feelings of unsafety, prejudice and unfairness for both asylum seekers and receiving communities. Tensions within local areas evidence how the wider policy focus on deterrence is now reflected in experiences of local life, whereby mistrust towards new arrivals is perpetuated from top-down. Decision-making which has a fundamental impact on social cohesion in local areas should be accompanied by community work that fosters inter-ethnic and inter-group interactions, anchoring newly arrived people to their localities, social contexts and their changing communities. Additionally, sustainable, multifunctional social infrastructures play a key role in bringing diverse local inhabitants together to foster positive reciprocal interactions and reduce tensions.

The authors would be pleased to be invited to expand and explain further any of the above summarised evidence.