Rats, overcrowding and malnutrition common at UK asylum hotels, report finds

Asylum seekers living in hotels have reported rats, overcrowding and food so bad it leads to deficiencies, research has found. Profiting From People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels, a report from the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (Ramfel), draws on work with 493 people housed in asylum hotels between January 2023 and February 2025. Asylum seekers reported overcrowded conditions, including families of six living in a single room. Many described the food as largely inedible and others reported having a medical condition or disability with no adjustments made for them. The report has calculated that the Home Office’s three accommodation providers made a combined profit of £380m between September 2019 and August 2024. That equates to £146 a minute over five years. Despite ministers’ pledges to close asylum hotels as soon as possible, the report found the overall number had gone down by just three since Labour came to power. The findings follow a recent damning report from the Commons home affairs select committee that found the Home Office had squandered billions of pounds on asylum accommodation because of long-term mismanagement of a “failed, chaotic and expensive” system. The department recently confirmed it had clawed back £74m from accommodation providers’ profits. The Home Office has confirmed that two military sites – Crowborough in East Sussex and Cameron in Inverness, are being considered for use as temporary accommodation for hundreds of asylum seekers. Other barracks and cheaper sites are also under consideration. The Ramfel report found that asylum hotels were so overcrowded that if one person in a family room sat at a small table other family members only had space to stand up and that beds had to be used as dining tables and desks for children to do homework. Rats were common, with one family counting five in their room, while the food provided was either burnt or undercooked and frozen in the middle. The report included extracts from GP letters to the Home Office, raising alarm about the health of some in asylum hotels. Malnutrition and weight loss, particularly among children, was a recurring concern. “Hotel life is robbing children of their futures,” the report concluded. Nick Beales, the head of campaigns at Ramfel, said: “Whilst politicians across the divide fuel anger and hate by claiming these are luxury five-star hotels, the reality is very different. The food is inedible, rat infestations are common and bedrooms would fail minimum hygiene standards. “Instead of fantasising about ever crueller accommodation options, this government’s focus must be developing community-based housing. This will both save public money and massively improve social cohesion between refugees and their local communities.” The Home Office has been approached for comment.