Asylum seekers 'traumatised' after hotel riot

Fires were lit outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham which houses asylum seekers

An Afghan asylum seeker, who was inside a hotel targeted by rioters, said people were "traumatised" by what happened and described feeling "lost" about his future.

The 29-year-old man was in the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers near Rotherham when people smashed the windows of the building and started fires.

Masked men hurled wood, chairs and bottles and some sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers amid the 700-strong crowd.

On Sunday, South Yorkshire Police said 18 people had been charged in connection with the incident on Sunday 4 August in which 10 officers were injured, with one knocked unconscious.

'Still in a kind of panic'

The asylum seeker, who did not want to be identified because of concerns for his safety, said the trouble had been preceded a day earlier with people passing the hotel and shouting abuse.

The man, who had been in the hotel for two months waiting for his asylum claim to be processed, described the fear and panic when the attack began.

"They entered from the back/kitchen to the dining area and broke the windows from the inside," he said.

"From the inside they threw chairs and tables onto the police and were throwing other things at the police.

"And then they started the fire. People were really scared inside the hotel."

One week on, and having been moved to another hotel, he said the fear had not subsided.

"I am pretty sure most of the people who were in the hotel are still in a kind of panic," he said.

"They are traumatised, they are not in a good situation."

Crowds gathered outside the Holiday Inn Express at Manvers on 4 August

The man had been in the UK for a year and a half as a student, but applied for asylum earlier this year, feeling he would not be able to return to his home country due to the Taliban takeover.

"I had a great life back in Afghanistan," he said.

"I was working with humanitarian organisations and in the development sector. I was also working as a volunteer."

He said having to leave his own country was not an easy thing and forced migration was neither good nor desirable.

The man, who has been supported by the Refugee Council, said he had hoped for a positive new life in the UK before the riots broke out and his experience had been "very happy" and safe until then.

"Now I don't go outside," he said. "I don't want to explore new places. I feel very sad and frustrated. I feel very lost now."

'Anxious and scared'

Nooralhaq Nasimi, director of the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA), said the people he supports were "anxious and scared" for the future.

Mr Nasimi arrived in the UK in 1999 from Afghanistan as a refugee and said he had never seen violence here "on this large scale".

The community leader, who was recognised in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to refugees, said he believed those behind the violence were "a very small minority".

Mr Nasimi said he felt "very pleased to see so many British people go out into the streets to support the multiculturalism of Britain, telling the public that those people who are behind this violence they are not representing British democracy or culture".

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