The Home Affairs Committee confirms what we already knew: The asylum accommodation system is a failure

This week, the Home Affairs Committee report on asylum accommodation confirms what RAMFEL, our clients, and many others have said for years - the Government’s reliance on hotels and large-scale sites has created a system that is unsafe, unaccountable, and inhumane.
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The Committee found that the Home Office “has not demonstrated that it has had a strategy for the delivery of asylum accommodation,” relying instead on “a series of hasty, short-term responses” that have wasted taxpayer money and left thousands of people in limbo. It revealed widespread failures in oversight, contract management, and safeguarding and an “inexplicable and unacceptable failure of accountability” as the Home Office has failed to penalise providers when serious harm to human life has occurred.

The report highlights that billions of pounds of public money has been wasted on hotel accommodation, with little to show for it other than profit for private providers and harm for the people forced to live in these conditions.
Hotels, which were supposed to be used only in the short term, have become the default form of asylum accommodation due to years of poor planning and failed contracting. This has left people seeking safety isolated in unsuitable areas, cut off from services, and living in conditions that harm their wellbeing.

At RAMFEL, we’ve seen this first-hand. Many of our clients have spent months, sometimes years, trapped in hotel rooms that were never intended for long-term use. They face uncertainty, inedible food, lack of privacy, and difficulty accessing healthcare, education, and community life. These are not exceptions; they are the predictable outcomes of a system built on profit rather than care.

The report sets out clear recommendations to begin addressing these issues:

• A clear national strategy with milestones to reduce hotel use before the end of current contracts in 2029
• The reinstatement of the 56-day move-on period for people whose asylum claims have been determined and a minimum 28-day notice for local authorities when new sites are opened
• Stronger oversight of providers, including Key Performance Indicators and financial penalties for failure
  Improved safeguarding frameworks and training for hotel staff
• Urgent reform or replacement of the failing advice, information and support (AIRE) service currently delivered by Migrant Help, which has left many unable to access support or raise complaints

These recommendations make the Government’s next move even more disappointing. Less than 24 hours after this report was published, the Government announced plans to open two new military sites to house asylum seekers - ignoring the report’s findings that large, isolated sites like Wethersfield and Napier are unsafe and unsuitable. Evidence submitted to the Committee warned of a “high risk of suicide” at Wethersfield, calling such sites “not safe or appropriate.”

The lesson is clear. People seeking safety should be housed in communities, not camps or hotels. The Government must focus on compassion, accountability, and long-term solutions not quick political fixes. It must also ensure that profit is never prioritised over the safety and wellbeing of our fellow human beings.