Housing, Vulnerability and Rights in the Asylum System

This event brings together researchers, practitioners and community members to launch a new campaign focused on improving asylum housing in the UK, while situating housing within the broader context of rights, vulnerability and protection.

The first part of the event will focus on the launch of the Asylum Housing Campaign. Through presentations and discussion, we will share emerging evidence on the current state of asylum accommodation, including serious human rights concerns in privately contracted housing. With the Home Office set to renew accommodation contracts in 2029, the session will explore opportunities for advocacy, policy change and collective action.

The second part of the event will feature a guest speaker Eveliina Lyytinen, Senior Research Fellow (Forced Migration Research, Migration Institue of Finland), who will present research on the experiences of older refugees, offering important insights into how age and vulnerability shape experiences within asylum systems.

The event will conclude with a book launch by Professor Patricia Hynes, Dr Anna Skeels and Catherine Baker whose work on child human trafficking highlights the most severe risks that can arise when protection systems fail.

Together, these contributions aim to foster a deeper understanding of how housing, vulnerability and human rights intersect within the asylum system, and to build momentum for meaningful change.

Thursday, 23 April 2026

1PM - 4:30PM

Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Redmires-36 00 11 (Moot Court)

Human trafficking of children and young people is a major concern yet there is limited research on the lived experiences of those affected and even less on their post-trafficking aspirations, strengths and capabilities. This book argues that human trafficking and/or exploitation should be seen as child abuse rather than viewed through immigration or criminal justice lenses. It draws on new research from outcomes of two participatory studies with young people affected by human trafficking. The first study focuses on the development of a Creating Stable Futures Positive Outcomes Framework (CSF-POF), centred around children’s rights and based on the views of young people themselves. The second details how this framework was implemented for the first time with young people through an outcomes evaluation of the Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service in England and Wales. An invaluable text, this book guides policy makers, practitioners, local authority professionals and voluntary sector organisations working to protect children and young people from human trafficking and helping them to move forwards positively following abuse.

Hynes, P., Skeels, A. and Durán, L. (2025) Human Trafficking of Children and Young People: A Framework for Creating Stable Futures, Policy Press, Bristol. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/human-trafficking-of-children-and-young-people

Older refugees’ ageing in (dis)placement and end of life wishes

Ageing and the end of life are becoming increasingly critical issues in the context of forced migration as more and more of the world’s population live in exile, yet older refugees are somewhat under-researched and underrepresented in migration-related debate. In this presentation, I examine how older people with a refugee background experience their spatio-temporal processes of integration, alongside their feelings and strategies connected with dying in the context of refugeehood. My aim is to bridge the study of individuals’ end-of-life-connected experiences and reflections with the analysis of transnational community practices of support and care at times of death and the expansions of ‘deathscapes’ in refuge. My premise is that older refugees face particular challenges of integration or finding an alternative end to their refugeehood, due to their age, with age-sensitive approaches therefore being needed in both research and services for them. Moreover, older refugees are obliged to create novel transnational strategies in conjunction with dying and mourning in exile, demonstrating particular precarities experienced by them. In this presentation, I will discuss my book chapter that I am currently writing for our monograph combining research and art. This chapter examines how persons with a lived experience of growing older in exile describe their sense of belonging and future plans. These questions are connected with my analysis of ageing in (dis)placement, and the issues of when and how – if ever – does refugeehood end. This presentation is based on my on-going research project “Older persons’ experiences of ageing, integration, and trust”.

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Host or Publisher Sheffield Hallam University, Department of Law and Criminology