A review also calls for an annual £5m fund for mental health and trauma support for asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers had been moved into the Park Inn in response to the coronavirus pandemic A knife attack in a hotel that was housing asylum seekers during the Covid lockdown was an "avoidable tragedy", a report has found.
A , commissioned by Refugees for Justice, said it was a consequence of people being moved from their homes into unsuitable accommodation.Badreddin Abdalla Adam - a Sudanese asylum seeker - was shot dead by police after he attacked three other asylum seekers, a police officer and two members of hotel staff.Badreddin Abdalla Adam was shot by police after carrying out multiple stabbings It later emerged he had been struggling with his mental health during lockdown at the hotel and had called the Home Office and other organisationsThe inquiry, led by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, called for Mears to set up an annual £5m fund for mental health support and trauma treatment for asylum seekers.The deterioration in mental health among a refugees was "striking and clear" during the pandemic and continues two years after lockdown. Baroness Kennedy said no thought seemed to have been given to what it would mean for someone who had fled persecution to be "rounded up" and moved against their will.No adequate assessment was carried out of the impact of the hotel moves on women and, for example, some were too embarrassed to ask male reception staff for sanitary products. Women who had been victims of male violence and trafficking were placed in mixed hotels leaving them "afraid for their safety". A "culture of fear" existed at the hotels with residents wary of complaining about conditions or speaking up in case it damaged their asylum claims. Hotel staff were left to step in and provide services that were "outwith their qualifications and job descriptions'.Baroness Helena Kennedy KC led the inquiry, which was commissioned by the charity Refugees for Justice Baroness Kennedy thanked the "courageous people" who shared their stories and warned the current arrangements damage those who come to the UK in a bid to rebuild their lives. She added: "In many different ways, these systems place people into marginalised social and economic situations, without adequate support, and leave them there with ever-diminishing hope for the future."We have heard countless stories of re-traumatisation and further trauma as a result of treatment in the UK by the asylum system. She also called for the provision of services to asylum seekers to be "professionalised" and for more localised services. Baroness Kennedy recommended the launch of an urgent statutory inquiry, with evidence-gathering and disclosure powers, into how the Home Office and its contractors met safeguarding duties to asylum-seekers during Covid, particularly in relation to moves to hotels.
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