Slavery survivor forced to move as anti-immigration rioters torch safehouse

A mother who is a modern slavery survivor and her young daughter have been staying in a safehouse as they awaited a decision on their asylum claim in the U.K. Now, the U.K. Home Office is forcing them to move to an undisclosed hotel that houses asylum seekers reports Bristol Post. However, anti-immigration riots continue to rage in the U.K., hotels housing asylum seekers have been torched by far-right agitators leaving Felicity (not her real name) fearing for the safety of herself and her child if they are forced to move. 

Building a new home  

For the last four years, Felicity and her daughter have been living in a safehouse waiting for an answer to their asylum claim. Felicity was a victim of trafficking and modern slavery including rape and sexual abuse and she has spent those four years rebuilding their life in the city. Like any mother, Felicity has been working hard to build a sense of safety and stability for herself and her daughter. She recently introduced her daughter to the school that she would start at in September and got her a new school uniform. So far, she has avoided multiple attempts to send them both to a hotel, but now in the current chaos and anti-immigrant rioting they may be uprooted.  

Felicity said: 

“I am honestly terrified at what is going on right now and I don’t feel safe at all to stay in an unknown place with my child.”  

For Felicity and her daughter, the safehouse and the surrounding community has become their home, and she feels depressed and stressed out imagining the kind of things that could happen to them if they are forced to move. The recent waves of unrest, fueled by xenophobia and misinformation have led to protests escalating in multiple days of clashes with police across numerous towns in the U.K. And the rioters have been vocal about their hatred of immigrants. 

Instead of listening, the authorities harass 

The Home Office told Felicity and her daughter they were being evicted from where they were staying, and to limit all they wanted to move with them into two bags. To asylum seekers and modern slavery survivors being told to throw away all your belongings and move with just two bags feels not just unfair but cruel. And Felicity feels the staff of the asylum team isn’t listening but rather harassing them into moving, telling them they’ll be homeless if they don’t move. 

Felicity shared: 

“In hotels they are harassing immigrants like us all over the country, making us so scared to even leave the house. I am terrified now more than ever to be removed from where we are living.”   

One hotel in northern England housing asylum seekers was set alight and rioters also gathered near another hotel used to house asylum seekers in a different location reported Al Jazeera. One MP expressed that the nationwide anti-immigrant riots were on a scale never seen before and were threatening life, property and the police force. Meanwhile Felicity waits fearfully for a call from the Home Office to let her know where she and her daughter will be taken.

Those rioting are vocal about their hatred of immigrants, and are representative of spreading hostility that breeds such violence, and puts modern slavery survivors and migrants at risk. Watch the recording of our webinar about the harms of anti-migration views that result in restrictions to human rights, the removal of protections, and movement methods that greatly increase vulnerability and exploitability.