News from our hotel coordinator, James Field.

Christmas came to the hotel! We donated a tree and some decorations which the families loved decorating the tree with. We received gifts from the Cash for Kids charity and we were able to deliver Christmas presents to 68 children. Huge thank you to everyone involved, particularly Paul and Hilary Featherstone who collected and wrapped the presents. We were also able to give Boots vouchers to 48 women in the hotel which they were delighted with.

All the usual activities have been carrying on such as the English language drop-in sessions which have been very popular, and Graham and Alison’s donated clothing store is going from strength to strength.

But it hasn’t all been festive cheer at the hotel – the asylum support group has been incredibly busy with many new residents with complex needs. We also had a situation over Christmas in which a young, extremely vulnerable aslyum-seeking woman was evicted following a decision in the asylum process, and therefore immediately became homeless, with no financial means, no rights to work or claim benefits, no legal representation, and – despite my and the team’s best efforts – no government agency or non-governmental organisation willing to take any responsibility for her. The Sanctuary team had no choice but to step in as a frontline service, providing accommodation, sourcing a lawyer, setting up emergency GP and mental health appointments and liaising with the Home Office to rectify the situation. Work is ongoing on this case and we have learned that we need to be more prepared in terms of understanding other agencies’ responsibilities in emergency situations like this. We are extremely grateful to Gurjit, Paul, Hilary, Mike, Kathryn, Toby and the team for their support with this and other asylum cases – we are very lucky to have such a dedicated team.

Going into the new year, the challenges of a constantly changing environment for asylum seekers coming and going at the hotel are set to continue and we are working closely with the hotel staff to support as many residents as we can. Thankfully, new team member Hiba Giha has really hit the ground running and is making fantastic headway in getting to grips with the status of everyone’s cases.