The Home Office has been urged to reintroduce a pause on asylum hotel evictions after resuming the practice in recent days, leaving refugees out on the streets in subzero temperatures.
In December the Home Office said in a letter seen by the Guardian that it would halt evictions from asylum accommodation for up to three days while severe weather emergency protocol (Swep) was activated by a local authority. Swep is activated when the Met Office forecasts a temperature of below 0C for a minimum of three nights.
In large parts of the UK, Swep has been in place for longer than three days and is expected to remain until the end of the week as temperatures plummet. In London, Swep has been activated for six days and counting. With the three-day pause over, Home Office evictions have resumed despite the subzero temperatures. Tuesday was the coldest January night since 2019.
When Swep protocols are in place, councils dispatch outreach workers and open additional emergency housing to increase their capacity to house rough sleepers.
Charities have said many of those evicted from Home Office accommodation are struggling to access local authority support for those who are street homeless that they are entitled to, meaning some end up sleeping rough.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said: “It is horrifying that government is putting vulnerable people at risk by refusing to pause the eviction of asylum seekers from temporary accommodation, despite the continuing freezing temperatures.
“The government’s hostile approach to refugees has meant that hundreds of people seeking asylum in London are becoming homeless or sleeping rough on our streets.”
One refugee, who has recently been granted leave to remain and has been evicted from his hotel on to freezing streets, said: “It’s very difficult to survive when you’re homeless. I don’t have any solution. I have tried so many councils and so many charities I can’t even remember the names of all of them but none of them have been able to help me.
“I’m not working yet because I just got granted refugee status. I find it unbelievable that I’m in this situation. I’ve been sleeping on the night bus. It isn’t really possible to actually sleep that way and I have to change buses. We are human beings and we want to have a voice.”
At the New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross in north London, a youth homelessness charity for 16- to 25-year-olds, 15 people who had been evicted from Home Office accommodation approached the centre for help on Wednesday morning. Most managed to stay in emergency accommodation provided by the local council but two young people slept on the streets as temperatures in the capital fell to -3C.
Phil Kerry, the chief executive of New Horizon Youth Centre, said: “The Home Office decision to pause evictions for up to, but not more than, three days during the severe weather just as we are experiencing is as incredible as it is devastating. Such a commitment is, in effect, an admission from officials that those leaving asylum hotels are ending up on the streets, and to allow it in this extreme weather is frankly unbelievable.”
Kerry added that during the first seven days of the centre being open this year, 187 people had approached the charity for support, 43% of whom were refugees.
Madeleine Evans, the general manager at Haringey Migrant Support Centre, said: “Evicting refugees, or anyone else, during this cold weather is completely irresponsible and puts lives at risk. After surviving so much, it is heartbreaking to see people we work with once again fearing for their safety. Unprecedented numbers of our visitors are facing street homelessness. Support services are at breaking point and shelters are full.”
Other refugee non-governmental organisations said some of the staff managing hotels on behalf of the Home Office were unclear about what the eviction policy was during the cold weather.
Leyla Williams, of the charity West London Welcome, said: “This policy, which could leave some people sleeping outside in sub-zero temperatures, could literally be the difference between life and death.”
Alexia Murphy, the interim chief executive of the homelessness charity Depaul UK, said: “It’s undeniably shameful that the Home Office is evicting asylum accommodation leavers on to the streets while local authorities are trying to provide emergency accommodation because it’s so cold people sleeping rough are at risk of death.
“We need the Home Office to immediately stop evictions and work with local authorities and homelessness charities, like Depaul UK, to end this crisis now. No one should be left to die in the cold.”
A government spokesperson said: “We take the welfare and safety of newly recognised refugees seriously and they can obtain support from Migrant Help and their partners when moving on from asylum support accommodation.
“We are working closely with local authorities to manage asylum decisions, and to provide additional support for those due to move on in the time frame that the severe weather emergency protocol is active and who may not have alternative accommodation in place.”
