Female asylum seekers are reporting rapes and sexual assaults by British men but many say they are too fearful to pursue criminal prosecutions. Their voices are rarely heard but some have spoken to the Guardian at a time when the far right is intensifying tropes about endemic rape of English women and girls by “fighting age” male asylum seekers. The rallying cry by far-right agitator Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, to motivate his black balaclava-clad followers last weekend when they protested about the arrival of asylum seekers in Dover and Portsmouth, focused almost exclusively on unsubstantiated claims of widespread rape perpetrated by asylum seekers.
While there have been a handful of convictions of asylum seekers for serious sexual offences, which have attracted widespread media coverage, there is no comprehensive published data about crimes committed by asylum seekers. One woman, who spent two years in an asylum hotel after fleeing religious persecution and domestic violence, said she was repeatedly verbally and physically harassed by a staff member at the hotel she was accommodated in. This included unwanted touching and holding on to her hands when handing over documents.
After a while he started visiting her room regularly, asking her out for drinks and on dates. He took her number from the hotel database and started texting her repeatedly from his personal phone asking for sex. At that point she reported him to hotel staff and was moved to another hotel.
I didn’t know what to do. I reported the attack to the hotel staff and I was asked if I wanted to make a statement to the police. I did not know if the police here would be like the police in Iran, so I was too scared to do anything.
In a third case, a lesbian asylum seeker from Uganda whose asylum claim was based on fear of imprisonment or death in her home country if her sexual orientation was discovered, was unable to find a legal aid lawyer to represent her. It is likely that incidents of sexual assault and rape of asylum seekers are under-reported to Home Office accommodation contractors. A home affairs select committee inquiry into asylum accommodation heard evidence about inadequate safeguarding in asylum accommodation.
The British Red Cross told the inquiry that this lack of safeguarding had placed “extraordinary strain” on their frontline refugee support teams. They provided examples including a staff member at a hotel trying to use a key card to get into a woman’s room late one night when she was taking a bath. They referred to a “pervasive culture of sexual harassment” in one hotel, including instances of sexual assault.
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