On ITV: Person seeking asylum on hunger strike against 'inhumane' hotel treatment speaks publicly for first time

A teenage asylum seeker housed at the Stockport hotel said living there feels like an 'open prison' (ITV)

On the 17th of November, ITV published an interview with the person who is on hunger strike to protest against the 'inhumane' treatment at Serco-run hotel in Stockport. 

Link to ITV page.

The piece begins: 

An asylum seeker has now gone fifteen days without food as part of a hunger strike against what he calls "inhumane and degrading" treatment by Home Office-contracted staff at a Stockport hotel.

Hasan, whose name we have changed, was housed in the hotel - which is run by contractor Serco - by the Home Office. He is one of over 100 asylum seekers at the hotel who are waiting for their asylum claims to be processed.

Hasan's condition deteriorated following his hunger strike, and he was taken to hospital. Speaking for the first time, he sent ITV News a video from his hospital bed - via the Manchester charity RAPAR - where he said he felt forced to take action. "I am seeking to end, or at least reduce, the harm caused to my family by the inhumane and degrading treatment to which we and others have been subjected by Serco", he said.

"In pursuit of those reasonable aims, I am on hunger strike, accepting only fluids, electrolytes and vitamins, as recommended by my doctors", he added.

Hasan wants his family are rehoused in "reasonable conditions" and has also called for hotel residents' complaints to be resolved.

"We residents must not be subjected to any form of retribution if we raise complaints", he added.

​Serco strongly rejects the allegations.

On the same piece, ITV published an interview with a teenager seeking asylum, also housed at the Stockport hotel, who said that living there feels like an 'open prison', and an interview with RAPAR's Dr Rhetta Moran who criticised the "hostile environment" for refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. Dr Moran urged people and government not to make refugees scapegoats, and said: "These are people who have been through some of the most awful conditions. We must not be drawn into the latest attempts to divide and rule."

Full piece here.

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