A vulnerable Afghan asylum seeker who was caught up in the Knowsley anti-migrant disturbances in February won a victory in the high court on Wednesday after a judge ordered that the Home Office must urgently move him out of his hotel, which was targeted by protesters, to a safer place.
It is thought to be the first case of its kind where the Home Office has been ordered to move an asylum seeker due to their deteriorating mental health triggered by anti-migrant activity.
The man, who cannot legally be identified, will now be able to move out of the Suites hotel in Knowsley, which he described as feeling like “a prison”.
Many asylum seekers housed in hotels across the UK have been targeted by far-right and anti-migrant protesters and have reported feeling traumatised and fearful as a result. Sometimes the protesters chant abusive slogans through loudhailers, carry banners bearing offensive slogans and try to engage them in aggressive questioning.
The far-right organisation Britain First has targeted many asylum hotels, and although another far-right organisation, Patriotic Alternative, said it was not involved in the disturbances in Knowsley on 10 February during which a police van was attacked with a hammer and set on fire and fireworks were thrown, they had been heavily leafleting the area in the days before the violence. They had also staged a protest with a banner outside the hotel just days earlier.
The man, who took his case to the high court on Wednesday, had been kidnapped and tortured in Afghanistan, lost teeth and suffered head and hand injuries. He is from a minority group in his home country and had fled soon after the Taliban took control.
When the Knowsley disturbances started, he was fearful that protesters would break through police lines and get into the hotel. He started to self-harm metres away from where they were gathering and was prevented from taking his life by others in the hotel.
More recently, he was attacked outside the hotel. He was filmed and spat at and asked why he had come to the UK.
At the high court the judge, Mark O’Connor, accepted expert medical evidence that the man’s mental health had “seriously deteriorated” following the disturbances. He has been diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety and PTSD.
His solicitor, Maria Thomas of Duncan Lewis solicitors, said: “We welcome the court’s decision, and the acknowledgment that Suites hotel is neither adequate nor safe for our client. The secretary of state accepted during the hearing that our client has suffered physical and mental harm whilst residing there and that his mental health has significantly deteriorated as a result of the riots on 10 February, and the ongoing protest occurring since. It is regrettable that our client has been made to suffer for this long; however, it is hoped that the secretary of state will now act swiftly to give effect to the judge’s order.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
