'They preyed on her': asylum seekers allege abuse in mixed-sex hotels

Claims against other residents and staff in Home Office accommodation include the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl, reports Shanti Das

- Shanti Das

Women and girls seeking asylum in Britain have alleged that they were raped, sexually assaulted and harassed after being placed in mixed Home Office accommodation.

An Observer investigation has uncovered claims of sexual violence at multiple Home Office hotels including allegations against fellow asylum seekers as well as hotel staff.

In one case, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly groomed and raped after being separated from her mother at a hotel housing mostly single men in Bristol. The girl's mother, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Observer that her daughter had been a victim of abuse in her home country and was “extremely vulnerable”.

Despite this, she and her younger sibling were placed in a different room to her, across the corridor, next door to a group of men. The mother said she repeatedly raised concerns with hotel staff and asked for her children to be moved into her room, but was told this was not possible. When she tried to keep her door propped open at night so she could keep watch on them, she says she was told by staff that it must be closed.

The girl is said to have been targeted by a man from the neighbouring room who gave her food and invited her into his room. The alleged rape was only discovered months later, in October 2023, after the girl began suffering gynaecological problems.

Her mother claimed failings by the Home Office had allowed the man to “prey on her” daughter. “The security was lax in the hotel where they put us. There were fights, constant smoking in the rooms, screaming, fighting, arguing. It was horrible. I said, 'I'm not comfortable because my children are not with me.”

She said her daughter had been “suicidal” after the incident and had refused to go to school. “[My daugher] said, ‘I don’t feel like being here.”