The British Red Cross warned women staying in a facility in London were “engaged in prostitution”.
The Home Office is facing urgent calls to take action over prostitution in asylum accommodation (Image: Getty)
Migrant hotels being used as brothels is a “huge failure of the state” and must be urgently stopped, the Daily Express has been told.
Men are travelling to taxpayer-funded accommodation to pay for sex, creating huge concerns over the safety of the women and the security of the facilities.
The British Red Cross warned that women staying in a hotel in London were “engaged in prostitution”.
Other men who paid for sex were migrants or staff at the hotel, it was claimed.
The Channel migrant crisis has led to a huge increase in asylum crisis (stock photo) (Image: Getty)
Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster told the Daily Express: “Asylum hotels being used as brothels is disgraceful and the Home Office should take action immediately to put a stop to it and not allow a blind eye to be turned by those it is paying to provide these hotel.
“Not only have they lost control in the Channel, but in the hotels they are using. It’s time for the Home Secretary to get a grip.”
Robert Bates, from the Centre for Migration Control, said: “Rapid processing of existing applications, swift removal of those who enter illegally, and a freeze on future asylum applications are the only way to end the chaos engulfing the asylum system.
“It is a huge failure of the state that this is taking place and a properly functioning country would hold those responsible for this accountable.
“Sadly, we are a nation at breaking point and as such there is no chance of any lessons being learned or action being taken.”
Alex Fraser, British Red Cross Director of Refugee Support and Restoring Family Links, said: “Through our work supporting people seeking asylum, we have seen significant issues with safeguarding practices and welfare issues in accommodation. Our teams work with people who have felt physically or psychologically unsafe and, on some occasions, where asylum accommodation has unintentionally put them at risk of exploitation.
“It is vital that people who have already experienced unimaginable suffering are able to live in safety and with dignity.”
The British Red Cross told the Home Affairs Select Committee: “In London, our teams were aware of a hotel where multiple women were engaged in prostitution, with men from both within and external to the hotel paying for sex.
“Our casework teams supported women who did not feel safe in the hotel due to the number of strange men coming and going, but there appeared to be no process in place for residents to register those concerns.
“When this was raised by professionals in a multi-agency setting, the accommodation provider indicated that they were unable to intervene in a situation where “consenting adults” were having sex.
“It appeared that there was little understanding of the concept of consent in relation to sexual exploitation, and in the context of a hotel setting where residents were expected to live on asylum support payments of £8.86 per week.
“Our teams also reported not infrequent instances of hotel staff and housing managers in dispersal accommodation being sexually inappropriate and making sexualised comments to female residents.
“One caseworker shared an example of a client who was preparing to take a bath late at night, when a member of the hotel staff attempted to use a key card to enter her room.
“She had pre-emptively put the latch over the door, so he was unable to enter. Another example shared was of women’s underwear going missing in dispersal accommodation following staff being in the room to inspect an urgent repair.”
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More than 38,000 migrants are staying in hotel rooms, costing £5.5 million a day. A further 65,707 are in other forms of accommodation.
The Red Cross warning comes after the charity Rape Crisis warned women in asylum hotels face sexual harassment, violence, exploitation and intimidation from migrants and staff, a leading charity has warned.
Some women are so scared in Home Office-funded accommodation they form small groups to go to the toilets together to prevent men following them in.
One woman, called Ola*, described how groups of young men would “drink together” and “smoke different things”, creating an intimidating atmosphere.
The young mother told how hotel residents would follow her around the hotel and leave notes in her child’s pram propositioning her.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Inciting prostitution for financial gain is illegal, and we expect the police to take appropriate action where necessary.”
