In October 2020, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, delivered a speech at the Tory Party conference where she outlined her plans to reform, what she called, our “broken asylum system.” 

“And for those defending the broken system — the traffickers, the do-gooders, the lefty lawyers, the Labour Party — they are defending the indefensible.”

At the same time, the Home Office began housing asylum seekers in decommissioned army barracks, putting vulnerable people who have fled war, torture and persecution in shared dormitories with little privacy limiting ability to social distance and no effective access to legal advice or specialist medical care.

Over the past year we have seen a hardening of attiitude towards asylum seekers and migrants in general. Freedom From Torture has compiled a summary of these attitudes, and how they have emboldened far-right groups to attack abuse asylum seekers, even seeking them out in their temporary hotel accommodation. Far from a 'compassionate asylum system', the impending Immigration Bill looks likely to make life for asylum seekers and other migrants even more difficult, leading to further injustices such as the Windrush scandal.

The full, disturbing report can be found here