A woman was told to leave her home of four years and the friends she's made in Liverpool to make way for a couple and a baby.
Protesters gathered on the street outside her Toxteth flat to stop what they described as an "eviction". Serco, the company which operates the property, disputes this label, insisting it wants to move her to another address to make room for a couple and a baby.
For the woman who lives there, who asked not to be named, it's the latest in a series of moves marking years of instability she has had little control over. She previously lived in a property where toilet water leaked into her bedroom, and she took to sleeping in a graveyard during a period of homelessness.
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She couldn't sleep for two weeks after receiving a phone call from Serco telling her she was to be moved out of Liverpool to a house share with seven other women in Lancashire. Serco is the largest of three private companies contracted by the Home Office to house asylum seekers
The woman said: "It's really terrifying, and it's really hard knowing that you are settling, you've come to know people, to know the community very well. And now they just come to tell you that you're getting moved, and you don't know where you're going. And where you're going, you start again meeting new people. It's very terrifying."
She is a lesbian asylum seeker from Malawi, a country where homosexuality is illegal. Identifying as gay, lesbian, or otherwise not straight, carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison for men and five years for women.
This woman has faced homophobia while living in shared accommodation in the past and fears she will again. She told the ECHO: "I was having problems, which is why today I'm saying I'm tired. I just want to be by myself because I've been going through a lot with women asking, 'Why are you lesbian? Why don't you like men?'"
Asked how the company would keep her safe from harm, a spokesperson for Serco said: "We have a zero tolerance to any type of homophobia or hate crime and would report to the necessary channels - police and UK Visas and Immigration - and offer support via our safeguarding team and external agencies."
Serco scrapped these initial plans after the woman raised concerns about being removed from her existing support network in Liverpool, where she's involved with Merseyside Solidarity Knows No Borders (MSKNB), a grassroots campaign group, and Refugee Women Connect, a charity.
Comfort Etim, an advocacy officer at Refugee Women connect and a former professional footballer and asylum seeker, said the charity has worked with this woman for years. She told the ECHO: "It's important that we continue the support that we've been giving to her. She has gone through a lot, the asylum system is a lot for her mental health."
A spokesperson said Serco "understood the resident's concerns and cancelled that suggestion three days after proposing it". They told the ECHO: "We actively try to ensure that when moves take place, people are not isolated away from the support networks they've built."
The company proposed moving her to another address elsewhere in Liverpool instead. Following the first of two protests organised by MSKNB and tenants' union Acorn, Serco further revised its plans. The spokesperson said: "We have spoken to the occupant on a number of occasions to explain the reasons for the move and more recently offered her a flat within her current building which has become available."
But for the woman being asked to move, that doesn't make up for what would be yet another move from where she calls home. She said: "It's hard, even my brain can't take it anymore. I feel like they're treating me like I'm not a human being, taking me here, taking me there."
A report released by Refugee Action this month said dispersal accommodation, which is allocated on a 'no choice' basis, "is often inappropriate and in very poor condition". The report said: "Following the introduction of the mandatory dispersal policy in April 2022, people seeking asylum can be moved around the UK without regard to local connections."
Preventing "inappropriate dispersal" requires advocacy often not available to people in the asylum system, according to the charity. That's why people gathered outside the woman's home in Toxteth, including Princes Park councillor Tom Logan, who said he was there to "show people that they're not on their own, and that there is some level of solidarity and support".
Serco said it's asking the woman to move "because she is currently living alone in a property which is suitable for a couple with a baby". Its spokesperson blamed "well documented pressures" on asylum accommodation for this need "to make full use of all available accommodation".
The backlog of asylum cases has left people waiting months or even years for their applications to be processed by the Home Office. It's testing the ability of the current system of housing asylum seekers to cope with such delays.
A year of difficulty sourcing private rental accommodation in communities has led to the government's widespread use of accommodation at military sites, hotels, B&Bs and detention centres, according to the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "We have always been upfront about the unprecedented pressure being placed on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country. We continue to work across government and with local authorities to identify a range of accommodation options."
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