Ian Hodson debunks the lies being told by the right about refugees

We’ve all heard the rumours.

‘They’re all young men.’

‘They’re all criminals.’

‘They’re living the life of Riley in hotels while we struggle.’

‘They’re illegal it’s an invasion.’

The truth is different and working people deserve the truth, not the scare stories designed to divide us.

Who are in the hotels?

Around 32,000 asylum seekers are in hotels across the UK right now. That’s only about 30% of all asylum seekers. The rest are in other forms of accommodation while their cases are processed. The breakdown looks like this:

• About 3 in 4 are men many fleeing wars and dictatorships where men are most likely to be targeted for forced conscription or political persecution.
• Around 1 in 4 are women and children. Thousands of kids are in our schools right now because their families sought safety here.

Crime?

Despite what the headlines say, there are no official figures showing asylum seekers are more likely to commit crime. In fact, every person is fingerprinted and checked against police databases on arrival. Anyone with a serious criminal history faces enforcement action.

The wild numbers doing the rounds on social media – claiming migrants are behind 14% of crime or worse are simply made up.

Where are they from?

Mostly war-torn and repressive countries:

• Afghanistan – people fleeing the Taliban.
• Eritrea – where military slavery and torture are common.
• Iran and Syria – regimes known for brutal crackdowns.
• Sudan – people escaping civil war.

No one risks the Channel in a dinghy unless staying home is worse.

Myth vs. Reality: Hotel conditions

Myth: ‘They’re put in five-star hotels with games consoles, phones, and free luxury.’
Reality:

• The hotels are budget chains (Ibis, Travelodge, Holiday Inn) or converted army barracks. Rooms are cramped; whole families can be stuck in one room for months.
• Food is mass catered and often poor quality; there have been protests about mouldy bread and inedible meals.
• They are not given consoles or phones; many rely on old second-hand mobiles to contact lawyers or family.
• There are no weekly private doctors. Like everyone else, they use the overstretched NHS and face the same waiting lists.
• They are not given free homes. Hotels are only temporary. If their asylum claim succeeds, they’re often moved into hard-to-let private or council stock. If it fails, they lose everything.
• Inspectors have condemned conditions in some sites (like Napier Barracks in Kent) as unsafe, unsanitary, and damaging to mental health.

The ‘five-star’ story is a lie. The reality is years in limbo, in poor conditions, with barely £9.95 a week to live on.

Myth vs. Reality: ‘Illegals’

Myth: ‘I don’t mind migrants, it’s the illegals that are the problem.’

Reality:

• Under international law, it is not illegal to seek asylum, even if someone arrives without papers or by boat. You can only be classed as ‘illegal’ after your asylum claim is refused.
• Most people in hotels are asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be decided. They are not ‘illegal migrants’.
• The reason people arrive in small boats is because there are no safe routes left for most countries. If you’re fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan or dictatorship in Eritrea, there’s no queue you can join.
• Once claims are processed, the majority are granted refugee status because they have a genuine case.

The ‘illegals’ line is a political trick designed to criminalise desperate people instead of fixing a broken asylum system.

Myth vs. Reality: The 1951 Refugee Convention

Myth: ‘The 1951 Convention ties our hands and stops us protecting the country from an invasion.’

Reality:

• The Refugee Convention was written after World War Two, when millions of people across Europe were displaced. Britain helped write it, because we knew the cost when governments refused safe haven to people fleeing fascism.
• It doesn’t mean ‘open borders’. It simply says if someone reaches our country and asks for asylum, we must hear their case fairly. If they qualify, they get protection. If not, they can be removed.
• Calling desperate people an ‘invasion’ is an insult to history and to common sense. Invasions are armies with tanks and guns. People in dinghies with children are not an army.
• The numbers are tiny compared to our population. 32,000 people in hotels is less than half the capacity of Old Trafford. Britain has coped with far higher numbers before, from the Ugandan Asians in the 1970s to the Ukrainians more recently.

What do they get?

• If they’re in a hotel with meals provided, they get £9.95 a week.
• If they’re in self-catered accommodation, it’s £49.18 a week.
• They’re barred from working in almost all cases.
• They can use the NHS and kids can go to school, as the law rightly demands.
• That’s hardly the luxury lifestyle people are told about.

So why all the noise?

Because it suits the rich and powerful. While bosses hoard billions and politicians slash wages and public services, we’re told to look the other way to blame people in desperate circumstances instead of those who caused the crisis.

The truth is, it’s not asylum seekers who:

• closed our factories,
• privatised our utilities,
• cut council budgets to the bone,
• or drove down wages.

It was the same establishment that now points the finger at the poor and the migrant.

Working-class solidarity

History shows our side only ever won anything – the weekend, sick pay, health and safety, council housing – by standing together, not by turning on each other.
So next time you hear someone say ‘they’re all criminals’ or ‘they’re living in luxury’ or ‘it’s an invasion’, arm yourself with the facts. Because division is what the powerful want. Solidarity is what they fear.