As tensions have risen around small boat crossings and asylum seekers in the UK, the hotels housing them have become regular targets of attacks by far-right, anti-immigration protesters.
Over the weekend, rioters threw projectiles at hotels and reportedly tried to set fire to one in what the home secretary called an “utterly appalling” attack.
We research the experiences of asylum seekers staying in hotels and other forms of institutional accommodation. In a forthcoming paper, we examine the harassment they face from far-right groups, and the role that political rhetoric plays into the violence and fear that asylum seekers experience.
