Women ‘suicidal’ in Home Office hotels
Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network highlights research from the charity Women for Refugee Women
Quaker Asylum Refugee Network (QARN) has highlighted a new survey that shows refugee women are subjected to voyeurism and sexual harassment by male staff at hotels.
The research from the charity Women for Refugee Women says that women who have fled rape, forced marriage and sexual exploitation are being subjected to coercion and control by Home Office contractors in hotels.
Andrea Vukovic, deputy director of Women for Refugee Women, said: ‘The government needs to urgently get a grip on what’s happening in asylum seeker hotels to prevent further harm.’
The research, published in The Guardian last month, is the first to focus solely on the experiences of women in Home Office asylum-seeker hotels. Sixty-three women from twenty-six different countries took part. The researchers include seven women who have previously lived in Home Office accommodation.
Almost half of the women surveyed said that living in a Home Office hotel made them feel suicidal. Male hotel staff entered their rooms without permission when they were naked or partly dressed, they said. There were also complaints of sexual harassment from male staff and ‘infantalising’ daily roll calls and evening curfews, leading to some women being locked out if they were ten minutes late. While sanitary products are supposed to be provided by the hotel, one woman said they were often not, and they were unaffordable. Many women said the current Home Office allowance of £8.86 a week, reduced from £9.58 in January, was inadequate, with one woman saying she spent half on bus fares to report to the Home Office.
The charity said that in the last decade sixty-five to eighty-five per cent of its clients have been survivors of gender-based violence.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘These are very serious allegations and we will investigate them urgently. The Home Office takes any allegation of wrongdoing or criminality by staff in asylum accommodation very seriously.’
Comments
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have single-sex accomodation with single-sex staff for women refugees.
It would also be good for both sexes to have some way of earning money instead of getting a paltry handout.
By Moyra Carlyle on 3rd October 2024 - 19:36
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