This guidance is a summary of information circulated by Mears to Migration Yorkshire. It has been shared to enable people who are compelled to share a room to know the way in which decisions are made, and to enable support agencies to correctly advise clients of likely outcomes.
We have removed the original document at the request of Mears.
Room Sharing
Asylum seekers in Hotels are now being told by Home Office that they must share rooms with other people. Where possible, people will be asked to share a room with someone who:
- Speaks the same language
- Is from the same country
- Share a common faith or religious beliefs
- Is of the same sexual orientation
- Is broadly the same age
If an individual meets any of the following criteria, they are not suitable for room sharing:
- a victim of modern slavery who has been referred to the National Referral Mechanism and there are reasonable grounds to believe they are a victim of modern slavery or a decision is still pending
- Under the age of 18 years (or thought to be)
- The individual is defined as vulnerable under the Asylum Seekers (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2005 regulation 4(3) and they have special needs for support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 – the relevant points in these regulations are that a vulnerable individual is:
- a disabled person
- an individual who has been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence; and
- The person has serious mobility problems or physical disability
- The individual has a history of complex health needs as set out in Healthcare Needs and Pregnancy Dispersal Policy at paragraph 4.16 – the relevant complex health needs are:
- Active tuberculosis and Infectious / active communicable diseases (when making dispersal arrangements for applicants with Tuberculosis
- Serious mental health issues where there is a high risk of suicide, serious self-harm or risk to others
- Chronic disease, for example, kidney disease where the patient requires regular dialysis
- HIV
- The person has a history of disruptive and/or abusive/aggressive behaviour.
Although some people may wish to appeal the decision to do so, it’s anticipated than fewer that 2% of the 2,000 people in hotels (ie 40 in total) will be exempted from room sharing and that Service Users that refuse to share rooms may have their support withdrawn.
Requests to not share rooms are being treated as complaints, and should be made to Migrant Help. Here is Migrant Help’s explanation of the complaints process that can be found on their website and a full version of their complaints procedure can be found here
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