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In a church hall in Hull, groups of asylum seekers queue for tea and toast and advice from immigration experts.

The room is busy, the busiest it’s been since the riots.

The volunteers who run the weekly event say many people were initially too scared to come out following the violence.

As in other towns and cities, a hotel housing migrants became a target for the rioters.

Wahag, 24, describes watching the attack from a window on the third floor of the hotel.

Riot police protected the hotel
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Riot police stood guard outside the hotel

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Wahag watched from a window as people gathered outside

Speaking in Arabic via a translator, he recalls: “I felt scared. I saw the people throwing stones and rocks at the hotel.”

He says he and the other migrants were advised not to go out.

Concerned there could be further riots, he says: “I’m worried that if it does happen again, it would be very bad.”

Wahag says he arrived in the UK by small boat just a few months ago after making the journey across Europe from Yemen.

The riots have left him with mixed views on Britain, where he thought he would be safe.

“There are some bad people and some good people,” he reflects, but he says the UK has a “good government”.

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Bodycam: Police attacked in Hull riots

Aftermath of protests in Hull
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Shops were attacked and looted in Hull city centre

Wahag reveals that the Home Office has now granted him leave to remain in Britain.

The decision came much more quickly than he expected. His is one of many asylum claims processed since Labour won the election, as it begins to tackle a backlog of applications.

He says he is “happy” Labour is now in power.

“The previous government, they wanted to deport us but now they are making the procedure easier for us,” he says.

It means he will have to move out of the hotel, but is now free to make a life in Britain.

Many of the migrants we spoke to remain more wary about going out.

William, from Kenya, believes asylum seekers were targeted because people think “we came here to seek money or their jobs”.

But he says it’s unfair migrants are blamed for the accommodation and support they are given.

William
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William hid in a community centre as cars and tyres were set alight nearby

“It’s the Home Office and the government,” says William.

“If we were given the right to work we cannot be living in hotels, living for free.”

‘It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel’

Mustafa, who came to the UK on the back of a lorry nine years ago, was also in the hotel as rioters attacked it.

“We hear they are shouting ‘we need to burn the hotel, we need to burn the people in the hotel’,” he recalls, praising the police for keeping him and others safe.

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Earlier this year Mustafa, from Iraq, was destitute.

His asylum claim had been rejected and he was sleeping on a park bench.

But he has since put in a fresh claim, which meant the Home Office gave him a room in the hotel while he awaits a decision.

Asked if he understands why some people find it frustrating he gets a hotel room, an option not available to people born in Britain who find themselves destitute, he says “of course, of course”.

But he says: “You know the procedure of the Home Office. It’s not our fault they put me in that hotel.”

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Inside the simmering anger after UK riots

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A Home Office spokesperson said it is “determined to restore order to the asylum system after it has been put under unprecedented pressure, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly”.

They added: “We have taken necessary action to restart asylum processing and clear the backlog of cases which will save an estimated £7bn for the taxpayer over the next 10 years.”

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University tuition fee rise branded ‘morally wrong’ – as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase

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University tuition fee rise branded 'morally wrong' - as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase

The education secretary has said no decision has been made on whether university tuition fees will increase with inflation each year.

Bridget Phillipson has announced the maximum cap on tuition fees in England will go up in line with inflation from April 2025.

The cost of tuition will increase by £285 to £9,535 next year – the first rise in eight years.

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There will also be a rise in maximum maintenance loans to increase in line with inflation, giving an increase of £414 a year to help students with living costs.

However, the education secretary did not say if the rise would continue after that.

Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Ms Phillipson admitted she did not know what would happen with tuition fees after April 2026.

“We’re going to look at this and the maintenance support and the sector overall as part of the reform that we intend to set out in the months to come,” she said.

“So no decision, no decision has been taken on what happens beyond this.”

She said the government will be looking at “what is required… to get our universities on a more sustainable footing… but also to deliver a better deal for students as a part of that”.

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University tuition fees to increase

The minister said she also “intends to look at” uprating the threshold at which students need to start paying tuition fees back in line with inflation.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said the tuition fee rise was “economically and morally wrong”.

She said: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.”

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The National Union of Students (NUS) said students were being asked to “foot the bill” to keep the lights and heating on in their universities and to prevent their courses from closing down amid the “crisis”.

Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education of the NUS, said: “This is, and can only ever be, a sticking plaster.

“Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.”

Universities have been making up for fees being frozen since 2017/18 by taking in international students who pay more.

However, student visa numbers have fallen after the previous government made it more difficult for them to come to the UK recently, so universities can no longer rely on the fees.

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