Fateful decisions that led to UK rioters targeting asylum seekers languishing in hotels

They became prey for the mob but the conditions which led to them being targeted were created years earlier, experts tell The National

Police officers standing outside the Holiday Inn in Rotherham, where violence broke out. Reuters

The first warning that asylum seekers living in a Holiday Inn hotel on a trading estate in the north of England might become a target for violence came the night before rioters attacked.

“They were going in a car around the hotel, they were filming and they were shouting,” said a 29-year-old Afghan who was left “traumatised” by his experience.

The reconnaissance trip in Rotherham, north-east England may have been the first clue of what was to come, but experts say decisions made years earlier by the Conservative government played a significant role in providing the far-right agitators with sitting-duck targets, if unrest spilt into the open.

The murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, which false rumours spread online said was committed by an asylum seeker on a terrorist watch list, acted as the trigger for violence. Mosques and hotels became lightning rods for wider anger directed at immigrants.

Footage of a mob attempting to burn down the hotel while people were still inside became one of the most enduring and troubling images from the recent riots, which lasted more than a week and resulted in at least 1,000 arrests, with dozens already jailed.

Slow process

At the heart of how this came about is the huge backlog in processing asylum claims, which meant many having arrived from overseas have been left languishing in hotels, unable to work while they await a decision, rather than be dispersed around the country.

Even before the riots, hotels housing asylum seekers had become targets for the far right, most notably one in Knowsley, near Liverpool in February last year. After rumours spread on social media of a man making inappropriate advances towards a teenage girl, a crowd gathered outside the Suites Hotel shouting "get them out" before they attacked police. Eight men were sentenced for their part in the disorder.

From the experience of the Afghan, it is clear those intent on trouble had identified the hotel as a target before the violence erupted. Other hotels including in Stockport and Hull also featured crowds gathering outside hotels, though not on the scale of Rotherham.

Colette Batten–Turner, chief executive and founder of refugee support group Conversation Over Borders, which is campaigning to end the use of such accommodation, says she is “shocked but not surprised” that hotels were targeted.

“What has been abundantly clear over the past couple of weeks is that these hotels have become a gift to the far right,” she told The National.

“Housing numerous vulnerable people in one space makes it incredibly easy to target them with racist violence.”

These included a mother and daughter her organisation is supporting who were too scared to leave a hotel in Stockport, which was “incredibly traumatising”.

Backlog grows

Rob McNeil, deputy director of Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the problem of the asylum backlog stems from when the Home Office “massively slowed down processing asylum claims”.

Ten years ago, 87 per cent of asylum applications were processed within six months, a figure that now stands at 6 per cent, Home Office figures show.

A milestone in that decline was the decision in 2019 to abandon the commitment to process asylum claims within six months.

Small boat crisis

That came as the number of people arriving by small boats began to increase and become an increasingly toxic political issue. In 2019 there were 1,843 people who arrived by small boat, reaching a peak of 45,774 in 2022, before falling to 29,437 last year. So far this year, the number stands at 12,646.

According to the most recent figures, 118,329 asylum seekers are awaiting a decision on their status, 67 per cent of whom have been waiting more than six months.

The figure is down from 172,758 on this time last year after the previous government pledged to tackle the backlog.

“People ended up in the asylum system for longer periods of time, so basically you have this ballooning asylum backlog and you have to find [them] accommodation,” Mr McNeil told The National.

“But when the existing asylum accommodation runs out because the asylum seeker population grows so much, then you have to find accommodation at short notice and it’s going to be contingency accommodation like hotels."

Dysfunctional system

He said that inevitably the available hotels would be those most likely to accept contracts, which are not consistently full, "so those are probably going to be ones that are in less desirable places".

The UK is still spending £8 million ($10.2 million) a day on hotel accommodation for 36,000 asylum seekers, though the current Labour government aims to stop using them by the end of the year.

This means asylum seekers are often moved around the country, so find it much more difficult to learn English and put down roots in communities.

“Someone who's seeking asylum, who actually volunteers with us, has been moved five times in the last year to different asylum hotels, and he's still waiting for his interview,” said Ms Batten-Turner.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said if the current system was functioning, hotels would not be needed as there is an existing dispersal system with enough capacity to accommodate people seeking asylum if cases are processed efficiently.

“The excessive use of hotels to house people seeking asylum over the past few years is symptomatic of a dysfunctional asylum system that fails to process people’s claims, leaving them instead in interminable limbo,” he told The National.

“Many are stuck in hotels for months or years on end, unable to put down roots in the community, barred from working and struggling with their mental health.

“The recent horrific attacks against asylum hotels highlight just how unsafe they are, and how vital it is for people to be accommodated in the community instead.”

Border rules

Colin Yeo, a leading immigration barrister, believes that while the increase in arrivals on small boats was beyond the control of the previous government, its actions contributed to the current backlog.

He points the finger at the Nationality and Borders Act, which it came into force in 2022.

The legislation gives the Home Office discretion to refuse to consider an asylum claim if a person passed through another safe country on the way to the UK.

Such a person would then be sent from the UK to a third country and the British government would have no further obligation towards them.

Haunted by Brexit

But as Mr Yeo says on his Free Movement blog, the UK has not agreed any returns with European countries to replace the system that existed before Brexit in 2016.

With the failure of the plan to send asylum seekers arriving by boat in the UK to Rwanda, Britain was in a position where it was declaring claims inadmissible but had nowhere to send the unsuccessful applicant.

“The inadmissibility process is obviously not fit for purpose and is instead causing a new backlog,” Mr Yeo said.

Failed policies

Mr Yeo said while new staff have been hired by the Home Office to work on making decisions, they will take time to embed and their inexperience has led to mistakes.

That has resulted in appeals having to be lodged, further clogging up the system.

If the new Labour government does begin shifting asylum seekers out of hotels, the problem still remains of them being perceived as having taken housing from local people, warned Mr McNeil.

He said it is an issue in terms of perceptions – an impoverished group put in a place already awash with impoverished people.

The Home Office says it is "determined to restore order to the asylum system after it has been put under unprecedented pressure, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly".

“We are clearing the asylum backlog, which will help us deliver savings on asylum hotels and accommodation."

For the Afghan asylum seeker, who is being supported by the Refugee Council, being at the sharp end of such violence has reopened old wounds from the homeland he was forced to flee after the Taliban swept to power, three years ago this week.

“People were so scared," he said. "For example, there was a group of teenagers who were clearly terrified, they were trying to find a way to get out but they couldn't find a way, most of the people were really panicking.

“The experience in Rotherham took me back to things that happened in Afghanistan, like when the government collapsed [in 2021].”