TheHome Officeis recording an average of 10 assaults a day on asylum seekers in its care, according to internal government data, amid harsh government rhetoric on those crossing the Channel.
Figures reveal that there were 5,960 referrals of assaults upon asylum seekers while in the care of the Home Office between January 2023 and August 2024. There were also 380 referrals of victims of hate crimes to their internal safeguarding hub during this period.
The data, obtained using freedom of information (FoI) laws, shows that the Home Office received 11,547 reports that people in its care were victims of trafficking and 4,686 reports that they were victims of torture.
Ministers have introduced a series of harsh measures against people who arrive in the UK on dinghies, such asincreasing forced removalsback to their home countries,the deprivation of British citizenship, and exploringreturningthem to France or to Balkan countries.
Steve Smith, the CEO of the charity Care4Calais, said: “These statistics are appalling, but they don’t surprise me. Our local groups raise serious safeguarding concerns with the Home Office and its contractors virtually every day, but it feels like they are routinely ignored.”
Separate FoI data obtained by Care4Calais reveals that, in 2024, the Home Office received a total of 1,476 of the most serious complaints from the charity Migrant Help, which has a Home Office contract to deal with asylum seekers’ problems. Migrant Help escalates only the most serious complaints. Of these, 367 related to contractor behaviour towards asylum seekers.
Both sets of data are likely to be an underestimate of the true situation as many people either do not report issues for fear of damaging their asylum claims or say no action is taken when they do.
Home Office sources said that in some cases there may be more than one referral made to the safeguarding hub about an individual. According toguidance on gov.uk, there is a zero-tolerance approach to harm, abuse or exploitation of any kind in asylum accommodation.
An inquiry is under way by parliament’s cross-party home affairs select committee into issues surrounding asylum accommodation. More than100 pieces of evidencefrom individuals and organisations have been received and published on the inquiry’s website.
In its written evidence to the committee, the British Red Cross identified “an inadequate safeguarding culture”, with many occupants feeling “physically or psychologically unsafe” in asylum accommodation.
The organisation identified a catalogue of failings in asylum accommodation, including “not infrequent instances of hotel staff and housing managers in dispersal accommodation [shared housing] being sexually inappropriate and making sexualised comments to female residents”.
It provided an example of one hotel where one of the asylum seekers identified “a pervasive culture of sexual harassment experienced by women and girls in the hotel, including several incidences of sexual harassment and assault”. It added that when these incidents were reported to hotel staff there was “no resolution”.
Sign up toFirst Edition
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
In another incident where a security guard badly injured an asylum seeker in a fight, attempts to get him moved elsewhere received no response. One man was discharged from hospital after a suicide attempt into a windowless room that was a known trigger for his mental health condition; while a woman with mental health problems and only one arm was forced to collect water from a leaking ceiling into a bucket several times a day and struggled repeatedly to empty it because of her disability. When she complained, she was told the leak was due to the rain and would stop when the weather improved.
Kamena Dorling, the director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said: “The high number of safeguarding referrals made in relation to survivors of trafficking and torture is alarming. We have long warned of the risks people face in harmful asylum accommodation, including self-harm and suicide, but little action has been taken.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Where there are concerns about the welfare of individuals, they can be referred to the asylum safeguarding hub, which allows the Home Office and its partners to address their needs and provide relevant support. We take the welfare of those we are responsible for very seriously, and the safeguarding hub plays an important part in that.”
In the UK and Ireland,Samaritanscan be contacted on freephone 116 123, or emailjo@samaritans.orgorjo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineon 988, chat on988lifeline.org, ortext HOMEto 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support serviceLifelineis 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found atbefrienders.org