How hotels became targets for British rioters

“IN TAMWORTH, the Holiday Inn has been used for asylum purposes for years,” said Sarah Edwards, the Labour MP for the West Midlands constituency. “The simple reality is that residents want their hotel back.” Ms Edwards posted the video of her comments, which she had made in Parliament two weeks earlier, on July 30th. She could not have known that five days later rioters would try to take it back—with petrol bombs. Tamworth was not the only place where hotels housing asylum-seekers were the focus of violent protests. Though shocking, such scenes were not surprising. Hotels have long been lightning rods for anger about immigration.

The previous Tory government sought to blame the rise of asylum hotels on the increasing numbers of people crossing the Channel on small boats. In 2018 only a few hundred people made this treacherous journey; in recent years tens of thousands have done so. Around 93% of arrivals claim asylum (most successfully). While it processes their claims, the government has a legal obligation to house them.

But the widespread use of hotels reflects other factors, too. The government has outsourced asylum accommodation to three firms—Mears, Serco and Clearsprings. During the covid-19 pandemic, with the hospitality industry short of visitors and strapped for cash, these firms block-booked hotels. Such arrangements have continued long after the pandemic for a number of reasons. A housing shortage makes it hard to find places to put people. Some 4,000 asylum-seekers had to be moved from an accommodation centre in 2022 after a diphtheria outbreak. Between 2016 and 2022 the Home Office took longer to process applications, leaving many waiting for months, or even years, to have their claims assessed. In 2019 only 15 hotels had housed asylum seekers; by 2023 that number peaked at some 400.

The bill for the hotels has rocketed. Asylum hotels cost the taxpayer £3.1bn ($3.9bn), or £8.5m a day, in the year to March 2024. That works out well for hoteliers and middlemen. But few others are happy. Previously contractors had been told to consult with local authorities about where asylum-seekers were placed, says Jenny Phillimore, a professor of migration at the University of Birmingham. That practice stopped during the pandemic and never restarted. Asylum hotels rarely end up in leafy shires but in densely populated cities or in deprived towns.

Dropping hundreds of people, mainly men, into such places can often breed rumours: allegations of rape in the hotels in Tamworth flew around social media before the riots. It also breeds resentment, especially where public services are fraying. Before a riot at a hotel in Knowsley in Merseyside in 2022, a few locals had questioned why foreigners were given accommodation ahead of the homeless. In Liverpool last year some people unable to get dentist appointments raged when they saw a charity dental van turning up to drill asylum-seekers’ teeth. Tensions have been compounded by political rhetoric that casts asylum-seekers as illegal immigrants. Even Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour prime minister, once called the policy a “Travelodge amnesty”.

Attempts to reduce the number of hotels by moving asylum-seekers elsewhere have worked out badly. Some were relocated onto the Bibby Stockholm, an infamous barge moored on the south coast of England; others were destined for former military bases. But conditions were inhumane, costs were even higher than hotels and local residents were still angry. Efforts to deter asylum-seekers from making the journey to Britain in the first place have also backfired. The Tories’ Illegal Migration Act, which stipulated that those deemed to have arrived in Britain illegally should not have their claims processed but be deported to “safe countries” such as Rwanda, created a new backlog.

Since coming to office Sir Keir has canned the Rwanda scheme, so that new claims can be processed again. He has also outlined plans to shut the Bibby Stockholm. But the backlog will take time to clear and the riots have put the government on notice. Putting asylum-seekers in hotels risks turning them into targets. ■

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