Labour must reform our broken immigration and asylum system to help prevent further riots

But this isn’t the first time we have seen far-right attacks on asylum accommodation. The organisation Hope not Hate has recorded 253 incidents outside hotels, hostels and other accommodation centres housing people seeking asylum since 2022. The most notable example happened in February 2023, when hundreds of people surrounded the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, chanting “get them out” and hurling missiles.

These attacks are inexcusable, but don’t emerge out of thin air. Years of openly hostile government policy and rhetoric towards people seeking asylum dug racism out of the undergrowth and let it into the mainstream.

“The previous government’s focus on deterrent has slowed the asylum and immigration system almost to a standstill, creating a huge backlog of cases, leaving tens of thousands of people trapped in limbo”

The new Labour government has come out hard in condemning the riots, with home secretary Yvette Cooper describing those involved as “thugs, criminals and extremists who betray the very values our country is built on”.

Meanwhile, heavy and fast sentencing, counterprotests and widespread public condemnation seem to have deterred further activity, for now. Fixing our broken asylum system will be critical to making sure we don’t see similar scenes in the future.

The previous government’s focus on deterrent has slowed the asylum and immigration system almost to a standstill, creating a huge backlog of cases, leaving tens of thousands of people trapped in limbo, many living in hotels. What were once places populated by people looking for a few days’ release from their everyday life have become, as the charity Refugee Action describes, “de facto detention” centres.

These hotels are often very visible within communities, with large numbers of people seeking asylum placed in areas with little thought about the impact. In deprived areas with long social housing waiting lists and minimal economic opportunities, it creates a fertile breeding ground for far-right leaders to stir up anti-immigration sentiment.

The Refugee Council recently warned that if the 2023 Illegal Migration Act was fully enacted, it would “lead to the asylum system being effectively shut down”. As a result, over 155,000 people  would be “left permanently stranded” in asylum accommodation. The Home Office’s most recent annual report put the cost of housing people seeking asylum in hotels at £8m per day.

This is why Homeless Link’s recent joint policy briefing with NACCOM, supported by over 70 other organisations, is calling on the government to repeal the Illegal Migration Act as soon as possible.

Labour has committed to clearing the asylum backlog. Once again, here it must learn lessons from its predecessors.

In August 2023, the Home Office changed the point at which people granted refugee status were given notice to leave asylum accommodation, from 28 days after receiving the documentation needed to demonstrate their status, to 28 days after being notified of a positive decision. This was irrespective of whether refugees had received the documentation to evidence their status required to access housing, employment, welfare and the support needed to rebuild their lives.

“For too long, politicians have pandered to the far right, legitimising their views in the process. The riots must act as a wake-up call”

The result was that homelessness among newly recognised refugees increased fourfold between October and December 2023 when compared with the previous year. Enacting a similarly rash policy to deal with the backlog will only shift people from one form of temporary accommodation to another, with all the problems that come with this very public insecurity.

Instead, increasing the move-on period from asylum accommodation from 28 to 56 days, in line with the Homelessness Reduction Act, while introducing collaborative move-on processes, will give local authorities and charities the crucial time needed to work with people leaving the asylum system to find suitable accommodation and give them the stability to build the new life they deserve within local communities.

But these reforms of the asylum and immigration system will not be enough on their own. For too long, politicians have pandered to the far right, legitimising their views in the process. The riots must act as a wake-up call, both to fix our broken asylum and immigration system and to turn our backs on the dangerous hostile-environment narrative.

We desperately need the new government to be brave and present a new story on immigration, one that emphasises its benefits and humanises people seeking asylum, building public support for a system that focuses on compassion and fairness.

Rick Henderson, chief executive, Homeless Link