The UK government has recently unveiled a new immigration white paper, and the prime minister has signalled a tougher stance on migration – but missing from both is a commitment to the basic rights and dignity of people seeking asylum. These developments risk entrenching the same punitive approach that has already pushed the asylum system into crisis.
For years, successive governments have failed to uphold even the most basic standards of decency. Our joint research, published in 2023, uncovered children missing months of school while trapped in hotels housing asylum seekers, black mould growing on the walls, and entire families forced to share single rooms for over a year, often with broken plumbing and no facilities to cook or wash clothes.
Last month, the chair of Reform UK declared that people seeking asylum should be refused housing in areas under their control. This kind of political opportunism is not new, but it’s finding firmer ground in today’s hostile climate. The Labour government, which once talked about breaking from the past and rebuilding trust in the UK’s asylum system, now appears to be moving in the wrong direction.
Read more:
- Here’s how Labour can dismantle the hostile environment and end refugee homelessness in 2025
- Legal aid crisis shows how utterly impossible the UK’s asylum system really is: ‘It’s so depressing’
- UK immigration policy is stuck in a race to the bottom – with human traffickers the only winners
The asylum system is a reflection of the values we choose to uphold as a society. But instead, we are watching a politics of dehumanisation unfold in real time. When politicians treat people seeking asylum as a threat rather than as individuals fleeing persecution, they are sending a message not just to those families, but to all of us: that rights are conditional, and that compassion is negotiable.
One mother we spoke to described how while living in a hotel in Hounslow, in west London, her five-year-old son who has autism and high support needs, is forced to sleep on the floor because he requires a special medical bed, which is not available in the hotel.