The “immigration election” is taking place across Europe, as many mainstream politicians are doing their best to tackle the migration issues that are going on in their countries.
In London, there are currently thousands of asylum seekers who are still waiting for a decision on their application from the Home Office.
The BBC London reported recently that it has been able to reveal more than 3,000 accompanied asylum-seeking children who are living in England’s capital in hotels, according to data from the Home Office that was revealed through a freedom of information request.
Of those 3,045 total children 64 of them have been living in such hotels for an excess of two years.
On behalf of the Home Office, the Conservative Party responded by saying that it has a clear plan to “stop the boats.” The Labour Party, meanwhile, says it would hire more than 1,000 new caseworkers who would be tasked with speeding up the asylum claims process.
Liberal Democrats said they’d establish a new unit that would be dedicated to asylum seekers and the process at large.
BBC London spoke with a 29-year-old woman who’s been living in a hotel with her husband and two children for the last two years. She told the news outlet that they had to leave their home in Honduras after receiving many gang threats.
The woman, who the outlet didn’t name with her real name, said:
“I was pregnant there and I was very close to losing my daughter, my baby, and we were like: ‘No. We need to do something. We need to go out.’
“I know that a lot of people are in the same situation. I met one single mum with two babies; she was pregnant in the hotel, she delivered at the hotel, she recovered at the hotel, like me. Now she’s in another hotel waiting for a house but she is alone. I know that her life is not easy.”
West London is home to a large number of these asylum seekers, even though they are scattered throughout the city.
That’s where a 29-year-old woman that BBC London spoke with has lived since her and her family fled in 2021 from Afghanistan. She’s three months pregnant now and lives in a one-room hotel with her husband and toddler son.
She said:
“Back home before the Taliban I had a good life. I am a dentist so I could provide for my child, I could provide for my family.
“Life in the hotel is really difficult to bring up children. It’s really, really difficult. First thing you need is open air. There is no place to play, no open air. We are really limited in a little room.
“There is no opportunity for me to cook well. I am pregnant; it’s not good to not have the food that I need, that my child needs. It’s crowded.”
