The use of hotels as a form of asylum accommodation has increased significantly in the UK in recent years amid a housing shortage, but now a London-based migrant women's support group is urging the new UK government to put an end the practice.

A team of seven women from the charity Women for Refugee Women (WRW) with personal experience of the UK's asylum system produced the report, titled Coercion and control: The treatment of women seeking asylum in hotel accommodation. It highlights that many refugee women, who have already fled gender-based violence, are subjected to further coercion and control in the hotels where they are housed.

The report exposes several incidents including:

• Routine surveillance and monitoring of women
• Degrading behavior by hotel staff, such as sexual harassment, room intrusions, and voyeurism
• Threats of eviction and punitive actions
• Isolation from support networks

The report also found that the impact of hotel accommodation on women's mental health is "extremely damaging" and found that:

• 91% of women felt anxious or depressed
• 75% felt hopeless
• 67% reported feeling dehumanized
• 46% were suicidal

Hotel accommodation likened to 'putting a bird in a cage'

The report emphasizes that the hotel accommodation system "perpetuates the patterns of coercion and domination that women seeking asylum thought they had escaped." Instead of providing a space for healing and recovery, the hotels further harm and retraumatize these women, WRW reported.

The report calls for asylum-seeking women to be included in the Labour government's commitment to prioritize survivors of gender-based violence.

"The treatment of women in hotels can be likened to putting a bird in a cage. The bird is deprived of flying wherever it wants and living the life that it chooses," the report wrote.

"Hotel accommodation has a lasting impact on women’s self-esteem and mental health. It tells women they are not worthy of dignity and respect and prevents them from recovering from their previous trauma," the report added, urging the new government to take decisive action immediately.

Read more: UK migrant rights activist: 'Trade unions and rights defenders are not protected'

How was the research conducted?

Seven members of the WRW's network, three of whom have experience being accommodated in a hotel, carried out an online survey on women's experiences of hotel accommodation, which was open between April and July 2024, and completed by 62 women of various nationalities currently or recently accommodated in hotels.

They also conducted 10 interviews in July with women currently or recently accommodated in hotels (nine of whom were also survey participants).

The Women for Refugee Women findings

Migrant women in hotel accommodation are required to sign in and out every time they leave and return to the hotel, and receive "intrusive questioning" from staff, according to the report. It said women are forced to be in the hotel at specific times each day, with some women having to adhere to evening curfews as early as 6pm.

Many women are also subject to morning 'roll calls' to make sure they are present. Women are only permitted to stay overnight elsewhere if they provide details of where they are going and with whom they are staying, the report noted. Visitor bans and limited financial support "makes it all but impossible to leave the hotel," leaving the women "isolated from social networks and sources of support."

Migrant women staying in hotel accommodation are also "subjected to humiliating behavior by hotel staff… including sexual harassment" and would be punished if they are deemed to "step out of line or be non-compliant with the restrictions placed on them."

According to the report, "a common theme among interviewees was hotel staff entering their rooms without being given permission to do so." Some women said staff entered their rooms after knocking, "but before waiting for a response to say they could come in." Others reportedly didn't knock at all.

"Whenever they want to come into our rooms, they will just come in…They don't even knock. I experienced it every day," said one woman during an interview with WRW.

Another interviewee describes:

"They come and check your room all the time. Sometimes you are sleeping, and somebody comes and knocks at your door. Maybe it's hot in the room, and before you wake up to open, they already have the keys…"

Another woman named Mercy also shared her story:

"Very soon after I came to the hotel, the manager started with his harassment of me. His room was next to mine, and every day he was knocking on my door, asking me to go out with him and saying things like "You're looking for men outside, but we're here… I didn't report what he was doing to Migrant Help or the Home Office because, to be honest, they wouldn't believe me or do anything…Later I found out he had been doing the same to other women in the hotel."

Home Office denies curfews

In response to a request for comment on the WRW report findings, a Home Office spokesperson told InfoMigrants:

"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."

The spokesperson added that supported asylum seekers are "not detained and are free to leave their accommodation" and "are not subject to curfews."

"All incidents of inappropriate staff behaviour at our accommodation sites are thoroughly investigated and we expect suppliers to take rapid action when they fall below our standards," the spokesperson said.