Edinburgh Napier University

  This review provides the policy context for the research project: Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers and refugees during the Covid-19 outbreak. The project explores the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on asylum seekers living in Glasgow, by focusing on those individuals placed in temporary accommodations. It aims to capture the everyday experiences of asylum seekers living in these accommodations by adopting a digital ethnographic method, which is co-produced with Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE), a grassroots organisation based in Glasgow advocating for human rights and dignity for asylum seekers and refugees.

The review outlines some of the key policies and practices in the field of asylum accommodation and explores how the implementation of these policies has changed in recent years and in the context of Covid-19. Focal points of this review include the different forms of accommodation used for housing asylum seekers in the UK; the legal basis for housing provision; the key providers’ stakeholders and organisations in the field; outsourcing and contract changes’ issues around accommodation standards; and performance management. The review concludes by considering the particular issues that Covid-19 has caused within accommodation provision.