The Home Office has told asylum seekers staying in hotels it will stop providing them with free access to non-basic toiletries and “over the counter medication”, a letter seen by the PA news agency showed.
The letter, which states that the measures will come into effect on February 11, comes after it was revealed that the government is spending £4.7 million ($6.4m) a day housing asylum seekers in hotels, an estimated £127 ($172) per person.
Faiz Mohammad Seddeqi, a former guard at the British embassy in Kabul, has been staying in a hotel for almost six months after being flown to the UK from Afghanistan with his wife and son.
The 30-year-old received the letter on Thursday and, speaking via an interpreter, said: “When we see this kind of reaction and decision from [the] Home Office, it means ‘from onward, we don’t care about you and we are not concerned about you — you need to manage everything by yourself.”
Mr Seddeqi and his family are staying at a hotel in Watford which he described as “not very clean”.
“I’m not very satisfied at all living at this hotel, the hotel is not very clean, firstly … secondly, the food they are giving us is not good.”
The letter, addressed from the Afghanistan Resettlement Arrivals Project at the Home Office, reads: “Until now, in addition to your Universal Credit payments and the accommodation and meals provided in the bridging hotels, we have also provided some additional items.
“I am writing to inform you that from 11 February, we will no longer provide those additional items and you will need to purchase these for yourself using your Universal Credit payments.”
The letter states the asylum seekers will continue to receive “main meals”, including “baby food and baby milk” but will no longer receive “complimentary snacks, toiletries [aside from basic toiletries] or over the counter medication”.
“You will need to pay your own transport or taxi fares to appointments,” the letter adds.
Mr Seddeqi said he knows other refugees staying in his hotel also received the letter.
His brother, who wished to remain anonymous but also fled Afghanistan, said in response to the letter that he hopes those seeking asylum could feel “a little bit more” looked after by the government.
“It’s very difficult for every Afghan person [who] left their country and came here, because everything has destroyed our country — the infrastructure, our aims, our goals … everything has just collapsed,” he said.
“They are coming here to the UK … there was no other safe place, no other place for them to leave and achieve their dreams. Most of these people coming, they left their families in Afghanistan, like me — I left my two sons, my wife, my father, my mother.
“So, essentially, our humble request from the UK government is that they need to look after Afghan asylum seekers or evacuated people a little bit more because the situation currently going on in Afghanistan is the worst scenario.”
There are currently 25,000 asylum seekers and 12,000 Afghan refugees in hotels, a total of 37,000, the Home Office told the Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
At Wednesday’s committee session, MPs were told that the government is “optimistic” it will find a new way of working with councils “on how we manage these costs”.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said the policy is “thoroughly inadequate”, and added: “We do not want people in hotels.”
She also said the government and local authorities are “absolutely struggling” to move Afghan refugees into more suitable, permanent accommodation as the country does not have sufficient infrastructure.
The Home Office has been approached for comment but it had not responded at the time of publication.
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
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If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
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Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
