The unilateral decision by the Home Office to open up a migrant centre in a hotel in a sleepy English village has been met with disbelief and outrage among the residents, who expressed fear over the prospect of hosting hundreds of asylum seekers.
A meeting of the West Northants Council (WNC) saw residents of the village of Creaton complain that they are “frightened” over plans to ram 400 migrants into the former Highgate House Hotel, which could be transformed into a migrant centre as early as this month.
For context, according to the 2011 census the village is only home to around 500 people to begin with.
The plans to use the hotel, which has recently come under new ownership, was unilaterally decided in December by the Home Office, which allegedly did not consult with local officials or indeed the residents of the area.
A spokesman for the WNC said in comments reported by the local Northampton Chronicle & Echo that “[the Home Office] have not consulted us, they have done it to us. We are being badly treated and through [Conservatie Party Member of Parliament] Chris Heaton Harris we need to make as much noise as we can.”
“You couldn’t pick a worse location to put 400 people — slap bang in the middle of a village… The decision has been very much out of our control,” the spokesman added.
Locals were also angered by the fact that neither the Home Office nor Serco — the controversial private corporation frequently tasked by the government with managing migrant centres, in exchange for very substantial sums of money — did not send a representative to the council meeting.
“The Home Office is treating us with abject disdain. We talk about democracy, they should have the decency to come and talk to us and give us answers,” one resident said. “This is a shambolic process.”
“We are a caring community, it’s just the numbers frightening us,” another added.
There are already around 163 asylum seekers staying in the nearby Ibis Rugby East Hotel.
The practice of housing often illegal migrants in hotels became common practice during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, which coincided with record numbers of boat migrants crossing the English Channel.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who originally exposed the scheme at scale, said last month that there are currently over 40,000 migrants being put up at taxpayer expense in at least 419 hotels across the country at a cost of up to £7 million per day.
Prime Minister Rishsi Sunak said in December that his government would look to end hotel accommodation for migrants and begin placing migrants in military homes, holiday camps, and student accommodations — as if this would be getting tough, somehow — but there has been no timetable made public as to how quickly this might actually happen.
On top of the steep financial bill, the hotel migrant scheme has also seen violent incidents on occasion, including the 2020 stabbing spree in Glasgow by a Sudanese man who attacked six people including police officer David Whyte, who was critically injured.
It was later alleged that migrants at the hotel were not pleased with the free hot meals provided to them, as they often featured spaghetti or macaroni and cheese and were not “culturally appropriate” for them.
Similar hotel schemes in Ireland also saw a mass stabbing which resulted in four people being hospitalised in County Kerry this week.
So far several men, including at least one migrant from Algeria have been arrested in connection to the Irish attack.
The danger posed by housing illegals in hotels was also laid bare when the British government admitted earlier this year that it had lost track of hundreds of migrants staying at supposedly “secure” hotels.
To add insult to injury, many of the migrants who absconded into the country had not been identified or even had their pictures or fingerprints taken by officials when they arrived in the country.
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