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7 hours ago
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The British Red Cross had to use hundreds of thousands of pounds from its disaster fund to provide basic clothing for asylum seekers in the UK in what it described as an unprecedented intervention.
The charity is the largest UK provider of services to refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants. It said the decision to seek £220,000 from its disaster fund, which is earmarked for emergencies in the UK and overseas, was to buy items for 12,000 asylum seekers who were struggling to clothe themselves.
Some of the people had contracted scabies and only had the infected garments they were standing in, according to evidence the charity has submitted to the House of Commons cross-party home affairs committee for its investigation into asylum accommodation.
The Red Cross is one of 97 organisations and individuals who have provided written submissions to the investigation.
Its first evidence session will be on Tuesday when David Bolt, the interim independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, and other experts will be questioned by MPs about findings from recent inspections, including the effectiveness of the government’s strategy in this area as well as the quality of services provided.
Amid an increase in demand, spending on asylum accommodation and support has risen from £739m in 2019-20 to £4.7bn in 2023-24, with increased use of hotels during that period. At the end of 2024, 38,079 asylum seekers were accommodated in hotels.
Two of the Home Office’s three accommodation providers – Clearsprings Ready Homes and Serco – have been exploring alternatives to expensive and controversial hotels including freehold purchases, compulsory purchase orders for unused or derelict properties, conversion of existing shops and office spaces, repurposing student accommodation and brownfield development.
The decision by the Red Cross to access £220,000 from its disaster fund to provide basic clothing arose following scabies outbreaks in hotels after people were moved from Manston processing centre for small boat arrivals in Kent at the end of 2022.
The centre became seriously overcrowded with up to 4,000 people detained there for longer periods than the 24-hour specified time in facilities designed for a maximum of 1,600.
Many people moved from Manston to hotels did not have a change of clothing and were only given £8.86 a week by the Home Office to buy basics. Public health officials were initially unable to contain the outbreak until alternative clothing was made available. The clothing was then distributed to many asylum seekers across the UK “driven by the scale of need and the imperative to prevent human suffering”, according to the Red Cross submission.
Other concerns included: the cuckooing of rooms of vulnerable individuals in asylum accommodation (when rooms were taken over by perpetrators of trafficking and other exploitation); 600 age-disputed children forced to room share with unrelated adults; 240 children in one hotel unable to go to school because they could not afford the cost of school uniforms; and some children experiencing severe malnutrition as a result of being unable to eat hotel food.
The charity Refugee Action also raised concerns about Home Office asylum accommodation. According to its submission: “What emerges is a picture in which brown and black people are being held for months and years in segregated spaces, cut off from communities in buildings that are called hotels but are in reality de facto detention.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
