The reality behind the rhetoric of asylum seekers in hotels
The protestors who unfurl their flags and shout abuse outside hotels housing asylum seekers believe that behind the locked doors lie predators and criminals.
Such is the hostility seen during the summer that more than 200 charities sent a letter to political leaders urging them to stand against the “racism and hatred” underlying the protests.
The Runnymede Trust also blamed “hostile language” used in political debates and articles for fuelling anger and resentment towards asylum seekers in hotels.
The reality is that many of the occupants of these hotels are women and children, or lone children wrongly identified as adults – and it is this vulnerable group that particularly concerns social workers and charities campaigning on behalf of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs).
Children like Samuel, who without the intervention of social workers may well have ended up housed in a hotel, terrified of the protests outside.
Samuel, from Sudan, arrived in the UK on a small boat earlier this year and was assessed by border officials at Dover to be an adult because he did not have the correct documents.
Campaigners at the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium (RMCC) point out that many children who arrive on their own in the UK from countries like Sudan, Afghanistan and Eritrea are unable to show official identity documents, such as passports or birth certificates, because they didn’t have them in the first place or have been forced to travel on false documentation.
Without identity documents, children end up having their age ‘assessed’ by the Home Office or local authority children’s services. Age determines the support an individual receives and how their application for asylum will be processed
Samuel was, in fact, 16. The boat he was on was deflating slowly as it crossed the Channel, and those on board were rescued and brought ashore. Samuel was interviewed about his age shortly after he set foot on British soil but was not provided with a place to rest. He slept on the floor at Western Jet Foil, until he was called for his age assessment interview.
During the interview he was provided with a remote translator, but they spoke a different Arabic dialect and so he couldn't understand the content of the interview, or why he had been assessed to be an adult.
The charity Humans for Rights Network became involved when Red Cross France notified them to say that Samuel was known to them as a child and needed support in the UK.
But border officials at Dover failed to consider the fact that Samuel was known to child protection workers in France, and he was referred to a local authority.
At this point, social workers stepped in and accepted his claim age without him having to undergo a full 'Merton compliant' age assessment.
Samuel is now a looked-after child and has enrolled at a local college.
Wrongly identified
Statutory guidance from the Department for Education, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and international standards all state that age assessments should only be carried out when there is 'reason to doubt' an individual is the age they claim to be.
But in 2023, there were five times the number of age disputes than in 2019, according to the Refugee and Migrant Children's Consortium.
Their Lost Childhoods report states that 4,800 UASCs arrived in the UK in 2023, fleeing war, persecution and atrocity – often on perilous journeys.
Hundreds were misidentified as adults by the Home Office's National Age Assessment Board, a body BASW wants to see disbanded because it believes the social workers employed by them are too close to government to be able to uphold the ethical standards of the profession.
Between January and June 2024, according to the RMCC, 63 local authorities in England and Scotland received 603 young people wrongly placed in adult accommodation or detention due to flawed Home Office age assessments.
Of the 493 cases where age was determined, 53 per cent were found to be children. At least 262 children were misclassified as adults in just six months, exposing them to safeguarding risks, trafficking, or further trafficking and child exploitation.
The 2024 report ‘Forced Adulthood’, by the Refugee Council, separately found around 1,300 children were incorrectly assessed to be adults and sent to hotels, removal centres and even adult prisons over an 18-month period. Hundreds experienced abuse and exploitation.
The Barnardo's report Let Children be Children states: “Children are forced to be adults when they are not.
“They are made to navigate systems designed for adulthood long before they’re ready. They are placed in unsafe adult accommodation, become at risk of being trafficked or exploited, suffer from severe mental health issues and are denied education and legal assistance.
“They are effectively left alone, without a guardian or carer to provide the love and care that every child deserves.”
Unsafe and unsure
Edris was 17 when he arrived in the UK with a National ID card and an identity document from a third country on his phone. But his phone was confiscated by immigration officials and he was not allowed to present his ID.
At his age assessment, two hours after he arrived, there was only one official present and he was assessed to be an adult. Edris was detained at Western Jet Foil for around 24 hours, then moved to the now-closed Manston facility for a further two days.
He was then sent to a Home Office hotel, where he stayed for three months, sharing a room with an unknown adult male.
Edris says he felt very unsafe and unable to sleep. He told hotel staff about his age, and in desperation left the hotel and took himself to a local police station to seek help.
Edris was removed from the Home Office hotel due to his distress and made destitute. Workers from the Humans for Rights Network (HFRN) helped him contact Migrant Help, but he was then relocated to another hotel. HFRN then referred Edris to a local authority and he was visited by social workers.
Following their visit, the local authority accepted Edris’s claimed age of 17 years old, without the need for a full ‘Merton compliant’ age assessment.
According to the RMCC, children as young as 14 have been placed in hotels housing asylum seekers or detention facilities, forced to share rooms with adults and with no safeguards in place.
It is often left to the third sector to alert authorities to the risks children wrongly identified as adults are facing.
Nabil Ali, senior policy adviser for Barnardo’s, said: “Often, it is charities, legal representatives, frontline health or education professionals who identify that these children have been misclassified as adults, promptly referring them into the care of the local authority. These local authorities should ensure these children are adequately cared for, safeguarded and placed in appropriate accommodation. They may also arrange a social worker-led, often ‘Merton-compliant’, age assessment.
"Children who are wrongly placed in adult hotels face significantly heightened risks, particularly related to trafficking and exploitation. Traffickers frequently target children in these accommodation sites, both in person and online.”
The ideal journey
Barnardo’s believes that children arriving in the UK should:
- be referred to the nearest local authority children's services at the earliest opportunity
- be given a Home Office reference number at assessment
- have welfare checks to establish needs and safeguarding concerns
- have their best interests considered
- be met by a social worker or Guardian from the local authority
- be placed in specialist foster care
A recent damning report by David Bolt, chief inspector of borders and immigration, revealed how young asylum seekers are instead subjected to "crude and cruel" processes from the moment they arrive in the UK.
Inspectors investigating operating conditions at the Dover processing facility where asylum seekers are first handled found: "The environment at Western Jet Foil, and the physical and mental condition of the migrants after a long, arduous, and perilous journey, make the already difficult task of assessing age even more challenging."
Inspectors described "backless wooden benches" and posters about people "arriving in the UK illegally".
Age assessment takes place from 7am to 10pm and on days where large numbers of people arrive, young people have to stay overnight, with inspectors noting: “There were no beds, which meant anyone kept overnight slept on wooden benches or on the floor with blankets provided by Border Force."
Refugee charities and other stakeholders contributing to the report "raised concerns about the validity of age assessing children following a long and traumatic journey and then spending the night on a cold wooden bench" highlighting that asylum seekers would be "exhausted and less able to engage" when assessed.
The inspector also cited examples of young people who felt pressured into signing a Home Office “statement of age” document confirming they were over 18 years old, who had not understood what they had been asked to sign or that it could be used against their claim later on.
The report led to fresh calls from BASW for age assessments to pass out of Home Office control and back to local authorities, where social workers with the right expertise, and professional independence from asylum policymakers, can perform assessments in the best interest of the children concerned.
Government ‘solution’
The government announced recently that AI facial recognition technology is to be brought in to determine cases disputed by asylum seekers who say they are children.
The AI tool, which assesses age based on facial features, is expected to be rolled out by 2026 subject to tests.
The development has been roundly condemned by the social work profession. BASW member Jo Schofield told BBC Radio Kent: “We're sceptical about this technology.
“How does it factor in things such as racial profiling, trauma, malnutrition, abuse, sleep deprivation – all of these things we know have an impact on the way someone physically presents.”
Nabil Ali added: “We maintain that the Home Office should abolish the National Age Assessment Board, and instead, ensure age assessments are carried out by skilled social workers whose practice is trauma-informed and child-centred, and only when there is a significant reason to doubt the age of a putative child.
“This funding would be much better directed in support of specialist social workers within local authorities, who are the ones best equipped to safeguard these children in a trauma-informed way, in line with the national framework for children’s social care.”
Key recommendations
Charities working with refugees and children advise the following:
- Treat children as children, apart from exceptional cases
- Notify the relevant local authorities when a purported child is treated as an adult
- Publish and monitor statistics on age-determination outcomes
- Ensure age assessments are local authority led
- Update social work guidance to support holistic, multi-disciplinary age assessments
- Abandon 'scientific' age assessment methods and repeal related legislation
- Abolish the NAAB and redirect funds to training and support of local authority social workers
In addition, Barnardo's recommends a cross-governmental strategic plan, better placement capacity with a focus on specialist foster carers, and a Guardian for every UASC to ensure legal representation and better trauma-informed support.
Refugee Action statistics
- At the end of March 2025, one in three people seeking asylum (32,345 or 30 per cent) were living in hotels, despite pre-election pledges to phase them out
- 17,991 new asylum claims were lodged in the first three months of 2025 – a significant drop on the last quarter of 2024
- Children under 14 accounted for 13 per cent, while those aged 14 to 17 represented six per cent
- 4,556 UASC applications received initial decisions in the last year – a 32 per cent decrease on the previous year. The asylum grant rate was 74 per cent
- Hotel use decreased slightly compared to end of 2024 when 38,079 people were housed in hotels
- At the end of March 2025, 109,536 people were waiting for an initial asylum decision, with 67,373 waiting more than six months
- Asylum seekers are blocked from applying for any paid work by the 12-month asylum work ban
- If half of those waiting over six months were allowed to work, the UK economy would benefit by more than £260.5 million from tax and national insurance contributions