Muhammad is from Afghanistan and has a lot to think about today. He has good news – he’s received his asylum decision and he can stay in the UK. But that has brought up a new problem: he will have to leave the budget hotel in Yorkshire where he has been living for months – and he has nowhere else to live.
Still, Muhammad has offered to introduce me to some of the other people who live here. I work part-time for the Refugee Council, which means I sometimes visit asylum hotels. They are strange, sad places that are misunderstood, targeted by protesters and even – for instance, last summer – physically attacked. This one is next to an overgrown riverbank. Many of the guests here are from war zones – you might recognise the names of their home towns from maps on the news. In most cases, they are not allowed to work.
