For six months, auxiliaries of the racist British state have held menacing protests across the country outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Initial protests attracted hundreds and in some places over a thousand racists at a time. In some cities they have continued weekly. The fact that they have been able to sustain this level of activity is the direct result of the racist hysteria whipped up by the Labour government and media.
The British state is unwilling to house asylum seekers in decent, local authority-run housing and instead for decades has created a market out of provision so that private companies can make a mint. Hotels were first used for long-term accommodation in 2021. At the end of September 2025, 36,273 asylum seekers were being housed ‘temporarily’ in hotels. Three private companies – Clearsprings, Serco and Mears – won ten-year government contracts in 2019 to deliver asylum housing. They subcontract to hotel chains. Clearsprings is forecast to be paid £7bn by the end of the contract. They admit that using hotels is far more profitable than longer-term housing. The Home Office is paying out £5.5m a day on hotels. Clearsprings owner Graham King is now the 154th richest person in Britain.
Asylum seekers, including women and children, can be kept in hotels for years. They are fed appalling, undercooked, out-of-date food with no fruit or vegetables. Children are suffering from malnutrition. Toilet paper and sanitary products are rationed, and rooms are filthy and rat-infested. Because hotel accommodation comes with ‘meals’ included, asylum seekers confined to them receive only £9.95 per week from the Home Office. Clearsprings gets over £13m per week from the Home Office.
Mainstream media channels such as the BBC and ITV work tirelessly to portray racists as ‘reasonable’ people with ‘genuine concerns’ of feeling unsafe, while branding male asylum seekers as sinister, dangerous and threatening. Thoroughly racist residents are quoted ad nauseam by the capitalist press to legitimise government attacks on asylum seekers. So we read: ‘It’s single men on small boats. What are their intentions?’ from one racist, and, ‘I’ve never really been frightened living in my own country, but I am now. It’s scary,’ from another. Labour politicians add fuel to the fire, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood describing asylum hotels as ‘an absolute blight on our communities’. This has led to asylum seekers being beaten up and chased through the streets. The press has purposefully made a distinction between far-right groups and these ‘ordinary’ residents who have had their supposedly legitimate protests hijacked by nefarious elements. In reality, they sing off the same hymn sheet. These protests are being sustained by organised, racist elements.
The government is using the situation to again pursue using disused army barracks as alternative accommodation. The first site to open is in Crowborough, East Sussex, where the government plans to hold up to 600 people. Thousands of racists have been marching in the town against the move.
A movement urgently needs to be built which sees the British state as the root cause of the attacks on migrants. It needs people who are willing to get out onto the streets to do the leg work. There are no short cuts. FRFI is committed to building that movement. Get in touch to get involved.
