Calls for Home Office to protect asylum seekers after accommodation violence

Exclusive: NGOs say safeguarding policies need improving, as victims tell of multiple assaults and incidents of race hate

NGOs are calling for improvements in UK government safeguarding policies after multiple acts of violence and race hate incidents in Home Office accommodation.

The incidents include 20 assaults of asylum seekers in one small area of Essex and a separate incident where another was attacked and threatened with a knife by a man recently released into shared asylum accommodation from prison on licence. Slices of bacon were also laid over food belonging to Muslim residents stored in a communal kitchen fridge.