A vulnerable refugee was evicted from an asylum hotel into freezing cold temperatures, despite a Home Office pledge to stop evictions during extreme cold weather, The Big Issue has learned.
The woman, a vulnerable survivor of sex trafficking, was told to leave her accommodation on Monday (16 January) by staff at a London hotel run by Clearsprings.
She was only prevented from sleeping on the streets in -2C temperatures by the intervention of Shelter and local charity West London Welcome.
“We are talking about someone the government has just granted protection to in this country”, Leyla Williams, deputy director of West London Welcome, told The Big Issue. “She shouldn’t be evicted into -2 temperatures.”
The woman, described as “extremely vulnerable” is “somebody who we are concerned would be at risk of being re-trafficked” were she to end up on the street, Williams added.
As The Big Issue revealed in December, the Home Office has back-stepped on its policy, designed to speed the clearing of the asylum backlog, by pausing evictions from government funded accommodation while SWEP (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol) is active.