Action Foundation, Asylum Matters, Birmingham Community Hosting, Birmingham Refugee and Asylum Seekers Solidarity (BRASS), Life Seeker’s Aid Charity and Stories of Hope and Home worked together in the latter part of 2021 to carry out in-depth interviews with fourteen people in the asylum system with recent experience of living in institutional asylum accommodation.

Although individuals’ experiences were different, there were a number of common themes which surfaced again and again in the stories they told. This report follows those common themes as people first came into contact with institutional accommodation, and then tried to come to terms with the impact of living in these settings.

All names of the people we interviewed for this report have been changed to protect their identity.