Protection for asylum seekers in hotels needed urgently, Cooper warned

More than 50 refugee organisations have written to the home secretary calling for urgent protections to be put in place for asylum seekers living in hotels who may be at risk from further far-right attacks.

- Diane Taylor

Several asylum seeker hotels were targeted by violent mobs, including those in Hull and Tamworth, this month. A Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham was the site of a particularly violent and sustained attack, during which fires were started and parts of the building trashed.

The letter to Yvette Cooper, shared exclusively with the Guardian, was coordinated by the organisation Conversation Over Borders and has 54 signatories, a mix of large national nongovernmental organisations, such as Care4Calais and Asylum Matters, and smaller local and regional organisations.

It calls on the Home Office to ensure clear hotel evacuation protocols are communicated to staff to protect asylum seekers from attacks, and adds that hotel use should be ended, with asylum seekers accommodated in communities instead.