Sunday, August 2, 2015

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

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 
'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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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