Free hotels for the Calais stowaways in soft touch Britain: Outrage as immigrants illegally entering UK get cooked meals and £35 cash a week within days of arrival
- Migrants given hotel room, three cooked meals a day and £35 cash a week
- Migrant get a double ensuite room, usually priced at £70 a night
- The Home Office rushed out plans to strip failed asylum-seeking families of their benefits
Hundreds of migrants who have smuggled themselves into Britain from Calais are being put up in hotels at taxpayers' expense.
Stowaways
who have illegally entered the country on lorries or trains through the
Channel Tunnel are being transported across England and given their own
hotel room, three cooked meals a day and a cash allowance of £35 a week
– all within days of entering the UK.
They
are being accommodated in hotels boasting pools, gyms and spas even
before claiming asylum, because official reception centres cannot cope
with the recent surge in illegal arrivals.
Scroll down for video:
'We're safe': Adam, right, and Muhammad relax at the three-star Best Western Park Hall hotel in Lancashire
Shopping: Adam strolls at a service station nearby with a friend after his epic journey from Darfur
But
their presence has angered paying British guests, who have taken to
posting reviews on TripAdvisor warning other holidaymakers that
otherwise reputable hotels all over the UK have been turned into
impromptu 'refugee camps'.
After
a week of chaos in Calais that has seen thousands of migrants trying to
sneak into Britain – and hundreds succeeding – critics said the
decision to house new arrivals in hotels was further evidence that
Ministers have lost control.
The
Government pays private companies £150 million to accommodate would-be
asylum seekers after they have been caught by the police entering the
country illegally.
But
private contractor Serco has admitted that 100 recent immigrants are
staying in hotels as an emergency measure because the country's six
dedicated immigration centres, built to accommodate 1,200 people, are
already full.
Tory
MP Alec Shelbrooke said: 'It is outrageous that asylum seekers are
being put up in hotel rooms at public expense. It's this sort of soft
touch that makes this country so attractive to migrants. The message
should go out that they will be detained in disused military camps.'
In other developments last night:
- The Home Office rushed out plans to strip failed asylum-seeking families of their benefits, in a bid to stop Britain being seen as a soft touch.
- Another 300 migrants got through security fences in Calais in an attempt to board Eurotunnel trains.
- David Cameron was under pressure to demand the French pay compensation to truckers suffering because of the chaos at the ports.
- Ministers warned all councils of a likely increase in asylum seekers needing accommodation.l French authorities threatened to end security and passport checks as they accused the Prime Minister of'outrageous provocation'.
- Downing Street announced new security measures, funding extra security guards fencing and CCTV for the Eurotunnel complex.
An
investigation by this newspaper has found dozens of migrants are being
put up in hotels in Lancashire,having made the perilous journey across
the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East,and then through
Europe.
After
finding their way past French police and security guards and getting
through the tunnel by train or lorry, the migrants were,they say, only
briefly held by police before being handed over to Serco and put up in
hotels.
Peaceful surroundings: The hotel was located in the quiet village of Charnock Richard in Lancashire
Asylum seeker Adam says he left his home in South Sudan in 2012 after his village was bombed
Muhammad
and Adam, Sudanese men now being put up at a hotel in Lancashire, told
how they came to the country. Speaking over tea, paid for by The Mail on
Sunday, both men declined to give their surname and neither have any
paperwork to enable their stories to be corroborated.
Muhammad
said: 'Coming to England is like being reborn. I have a new life now.
The hotel is nice and comfortable.We feel safe here. The country is
beautiful and food is good.'
Adam told how he fled South Sudan, claiming his village was bombed by fighter jets. He was then held in a refugee camp in 2012.
After
working in a restaurant in Chad he said he reached Libya but was held
in jail for two months because he could not pay a release fee, and was
then kept as a slave on a farm for six months until he ran away.
Earlier
this year he made the week-long voyage across the Mediterranean,paying a
trafficker $1,500 (£960) for a place alongside more than 300 other
migrants in a barely seaworthy boat, and said he saw two young men drown
after an onboard fire led to 'panic and fighting'.
Adam,
28, said he spent two months in the notorious Jungle refugee camp near
Calais, where he was introduced to an Afghan people smuggler who helped
him make it to the UK for €150 (£105).
In
late July he followed the man toa fence close to the Eurotunnel
terminal. After the man cut through the wire, Adam was led to a parked
lorry where the trafficker tore a hole in the soft roof andguided him
and 18 other men into a compartment.
After
several hours' travelling they knocked on the side of the lorry to let
the driver know they were there, and when the door opened they were met
by police cars and an officer who allegedly told them:
'Welcome
to England.'The group were held in custody overnight before spending
three days in a hotel near London. They then joined other migrants in a
convoy of three coaches up to Lancashire.
Adam claimed there were up to 100 migrants in each vehicle and that groups of 20 were dropped off at hotels along the way.
Eventually,
last Monday, he arrived at the three-star Best Western Park Hall hotel
in Chorley, Lancashire,which boasts a banqueting hall,function rooms and
a tree-lined lake.
As
well as strolling around the 140 acres of wooded countryside, guests
who pay about £70 a night for a roomcan also take full advantage of the
leisure facilities including two indoor pools, Jacuzzi, gym and spa.
Migrants reportedly received three hot meals a day including sandwiches, chips and pasta bake
Alleged asylum seekers being accommodated at the Best Western Hotel in Charnock Richard, Lancashire
On
Friday night, as holidaying families ate meals, asylum seekers wandered
around the grounds smoking cigarettes and talking on mobile phones.
About 22 asylum seekers are thought to have been given ensuite double
rooms at the hotel with Freeview televisions.
They
eat in a private room away from other guests and have enjoyed
breakfasts of croissants, toast and tea and coffee; lunches of tuna
sandwiches with chips and salad and dinners of pasta bake, chips and
rice.
Staff from Serco are on site but the asylum seekers are free to leave.
They
are given about £5 a day to buy essentials such as toiletries from
local shops.They have also been promised free legal aid, and once their
asylum claim is being processed they will be entitled to free health
care,education and housing potentially worth thousands.
Both
Sudanese men said their treatment in Britain was far better than in it
had been France, providing a possible explanation as to why so many
people are risking their lives trying to board cross-Channel trains.
They claimed that in Calais they were beaten by police, received no food and slept rough.
Speaking
through an interpreter, Adam said: 'The situation is really good here,
much better than the situations we have been through.'
He
has managed to call Sudan and get a message to his mother, who remains
in a refugee camp, telling her he had made it to England.
HMS Bulwark prepares for survivors to come on-board after their rescue in the Mediterranean
A migrant trying to board UK bound lorries on the main road into Calais ferry port in July
Stowaways: Migrants attempt to gain access inside a heavy transporter train carriage
Leaping over a tall wired fence, one migrant attempts to enter the Euro tunnel site
Evading capture: Sprinting over the tracks, migrants head for a train at Coquelles in Calais
On the move: Migrants queue up to take turns in crawling underneath the wired fence
Adam
said he is waiting until he is provided with a lawyer to make a formal
asylum application, and wants to get a job so he can send money back to
his family.
An
estimated 70 asylum seekers are also staying at a Britannia hotel in
Wigan,which has been dubbed 'Hotel Sangatte' after the infamous refugee
camp in Calais.
One migrant said they had been warned by an official not to upset the traditional guests by hanging around the public areas.
Serco
said last night that it was housing 100 asylum seekers in hotels but
insisted it did not cost taxpayers extra as the money comes out of the
general funds it receives from the Home Office.
Hotels
are being used as a contingency plan, for the first time in nine
months, because the 1,200 places in the six initial accommodation
centres run by Serco and G4S are full. G4S is believed to have placed a
handful of migrants in hotels in recent weeks but a spokesman said:
'We
do not currently have any asylum seekers housed in hotels.'The Home
Office said: 'The use of hotels is only ever acceptable as a short-term
contingency measure.
We
are taking steps to ensure that this is the case.' But Shadow
Immigration Minister David Hanson added: 'The Government is continuing
to play catch-up over this. They should have anticipated these problems.
David Cameron shouldbe urgently discussing how the French are responding to asylum claims in France.'
Last
night, No 10 announced it had agreed new security measures with the
French government which has promised 'an increased police presence'in
Calais over the summer.
Ministers also threatened a crackdown on benefits for migrants whose asylum claims have been refused.
Asylum
applicants with families continue to receive state support even if
their bid has been rejected. But the Home Office is now considering
withdrawing that support while ensuring protection for children.
'THIS ISN'T A HOTEL... IT 'S ANOTHER SANGATTE': BRITISH GUESTS' FURY AT MIGRANT-PACKED HOTELS
British
guests have taken to popular review website TripAdvisor to vent their
anger at hotels being used to temporarily house would-be asylum seekers.
One
hotel, the Britannia Wigan, in Lancashire, was dubbed 'another
Sangatte' by a visitor earlier this year, drawing comparisons with the
notorious French camp used to house migrants before it was closed in
2002 after pressure from Britain.
The visitor added: 'This is not a hotel, it's a refugee camp!'
The hotel is part of the Britannia chain, which has taken in migrants at several of its properties around the country.
Mail on Sunday reporters found up to 70
African migrants being housed at the Wigan hotel last week – to the
surprise of paying guests
We saw one new guest specifically asking about the refugees as he checked in.
'What's going on outside?' he asked, pointing at around eight refugees congregating by a bench and table set a few yards away.
'Nothing,' said the receptionist. The guest looked puzzled but didn't pursue the matter.
Last
year at the Daresbury Park Hotel, Cheshire, another guest wrote of
asylum seekers on TripAdvisor: 'The WORST bit was the appraising looks
and behavior of these groups of men... not reassuring in a hotel and
our waitress let slip that they didn't like being looked up and down
either.'
Another
TripAdvisor reviewer commented last year on a visit to the Heathlands
Hotel, Bournemouth: 'A very average weekend break (with asylum
seekers).'
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