Asylum seekers unhappy at Stratford- upon- Avon Hotel

Everybody wants a house but there’s loads on the waiting list for one already.I don’t think asylum seekers are housed until they’re successful with an application?

I wonder where they come from?
Maybe they’re more used to luxury hotels hey?

This smacks of a Daily Mail reporter on a quiet day wanting to stir up some migrant hatred to me. He probably stopped a couple of people and encouraged them to have a moan.

Casdon

This smacks of a Daily Mail reporter on a quiet day wanting to stir up some migrant hatred to me. He probably stopped a couple of people and encouraged them to have a moan.

That's the impression I get as well.

My asylum seeker friends were delighted to be safe in the UK during the 13 years it took for them to become legal (unable to get a proper home, to work). Living in a one bedroom flat, with 2 children. Moved 3 times, away from schools their children had settled into.

But they were safe.

Don't believe the cr*p you read in the papers.

I can't believe the stupidity of of thinking this is just in the mail! Really?

But the point is it was in the mail and the reporter had gone seeking those dissatisfied deliberately lemsip There could have been balanced report that included those so grateful and positive too but they weren't interested in that, were they?.

Casdon

This smacks of a Daily Mail reporter on a quiet day wanting to stir up some migrant hatred to me. He probably stopped a couple of people and encouraged them to have a moan.

This is not 'just the Daily Mail' because this issue was highlighted on the BBC early evening news last Monday. This is happening all over the country to thousands of migrants and in hundreds of hotels. Just to add to the problem, some of the locations of these hotels are dreadful, between a retirement complex and a golf course for example, or in the centre of a small historic town. Consequently the locals are deeply unhappy and so are the migrants. And how can houses be found for any of them when we have a severe housing shortage already?

They weren't happy in army barracks that normally house service personnel and now they're not happy in hotels.
I think our homeless would love to swap places with them.

I may be wrong, but I think when I read about 'illegal' migrants, '4 star' hotels etc., people imagine them in plush suites, being served three gourmet meals every day in between lounging by the pool, calling room service and using all the amenities which would be available to paying guests on holiday.

This is very far from the situation for asylum seekers (who, by definition, are not illegal). They will be living in overcrowded rooms, stuck there for months if not years, unable to recover from the horrors many of them will have experienced, missing their homes and often families, not allowed to work or settle in any way. They are NOT enjoying a life of luxury, however many stars the hotel has!

I don't think any of you would be happy stuck in a hotel, in a foreign country, for weeks on end with nothing to do, very little money and no prospect of getting out in the near future.

The relief at getting to a safe country can't buoy these people up for ever. Then there is the stress of waiting months, even years, for a decision on their application for asylum.

The Home Office needs to get its finger out...

We don't want to be living all together in a hotel, we want a house so we can be independent.

Well I guess this probably applies to many British born families who are currently housed in shitty BBs and hostels and who are waiting for social housing. The difference being that these are people who have (mostly) contributed to the community and found themseleves homeless through no fault of their own. Possibly by some greedy parasite landlord or corrupt power companies putting up rents and charges.

As for those who have entered the country by an illegal route and have put nothing into the community, just looking for an easier life .... Pass me my tiny violin.

All part of a (deliberate?) campaign to stir up hostility towards genuine asylum seekers. Only in the UK are they left to despair through ridiculously extended 'application' processes, hounded by the press and locals, treated as opportunistic, lazy, money grabbing 'illegals' etc.

Of course, come election time, there will be promises to resolve the (self made) problem. What a horrible waste. We desperately need more 'economically active' - so we ban them from working and expect the oldies to launch themselves back into the workplace!

Bring back work camps and make them pick fruit and recycle rubbish. Shades of Cool Hand Luke.

Oh, FGS, biglouis, they're not allowed to put anything into the community, however much they might want to. And as our lovely government won't provide any safe routes for any but a few refugees they can only enter the UK irregularly.

Until 2 years ago I lived in Stratford and that hotel has had a very chequered history with many changes of ownership. It is definitely at the budget end of the market these days. It's on the edge of the town and Stratford nowadays mainly consists of charity shops or cafes for tourists. It really isn't an ideal location for asylum seekers

I am sure that many of these people would be only too happy to work but they are not allowed to. What is needed if for the process to be speeded up.

I agree with you Casdon and disagree with eddiecat (sorry).
Stratford on Avon is a lovely place to be, a quintessential English town with the rich history of Shakespeare and a lovely riverside.
Admittedly it would be sinful if asylum seekers are not to be able to take a walk outside (I assume they are not prisoners in the hotel?) but I feel we cannot believe everything we read in the media.
Also not everyone judges a town by it’s shops - there are many other things to do.
There are far worse places to be than Stratford upon Avon , but I am not disagreeing that these people need their own homes as soon as can possibly be arranged.

They’re not looking for an easier life unless you count not being threatened by war an easy life. They want to work and we have this workforce unable to do so because of the inefficiency of the government departments responsible for processing them. It’s also the fault of the government that there isn’t enough housing for people or that there are unscrupulous landlords making people live in unhealthy conditions. I rather suspect that the government put them in hotels in very prominent places because it makes it easier for them to make scapegoats out of them. Turkey have taken in nearly 4 million refugees in the time that we’ve taken in 54,000. Yes, there is a problem but nowhere near the problem that it’s being made out to be because this government are using these people as scapegoats. Covid,asylum seekers, Ukraine, they’re all a smokescreen for years of mismanagement by successive governments that only care for one thing and that’s being in power for the sake of it.

Stratford is one of the nicest places in the Midlands, it is a very popular place to retire because of many activities you can take part in. There are charity shops in the high street, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, nail bars, banks, pubs, hotels, a real mix, far removed from the run down state of many high streets.

Businesses are desperate for staff, since the EU workers left, mainly during Covid it’s very difficult for pubs, hotels, care homes, nurseries, and farms too. The Grosvenor is a mid range hotel, close to the town centre, I presume they are not locked in, so why can they not work to help pay for their accommodation.

It’s a crime that businesses are closing because of staff shortage yet migrants are not allowed to work

I know the situation is dire now and reminds me of a time back in 1972.when we were asked by our local Quaker Meeting to invite a refugee family to our home for the day.

These were Ugandan Asian families, who were expelled by the dictator Idi Amin.
They were mostly family groups being housed at Barracks waiting for papers to be processed, unable to work and suffering similar hostility by some locals.

The ones who came to us were vegan and had been living mainly on boiled cabbage.
I gave the woman who spoke no English, free run of my kitchen and the 8 of us were treated a few hours later to the best Indian meal I think I have ever had!

This family quickly found work and lodgings in London.
Years later I was teaching pottery in Edinburgh and one of my students was a medical student whose family were refugees back in 1972 when he was a baby...

Thanks Grammaretto, for posting your experience. The history of the Ugandan Asians in the UK serves to remind us how much immigrants contribute.

The way asylum seekers are housed is shameful, as is the delay in processing applications. We hear the government telling us they save money by ‘getting rid of pen pushers’. That will include civil servants who could speed the process.

Many asylum seekers have managed to get here because they’re resourceful people. We have teachers, health workers as well as fit, motivated young people languishing in hotel rooms when they could be working.

This loathsome ‘othering’ of people fleeing war needs challenging. As for the DM, it’s approach to asylum seekers today mirrors its approach to Jewish people seeking refuge in the 30’s

As ever, the issue of asylum seekers is muddied by the economic migrants including/especially the very high and inexplicable number of Albanian men.
It looks like a number of middle Eastern refugees are housed near us in a former hotel. I see them out and about and obviously freely able to be so. They are very noticeable as they dress in their familiar clothing which is not nearly warm enough for Scottish winters. I'd hope that there is good support and practical assistance for them but 'a hae ma doots'.

TillyTrotter

I agree with you Casdon and disagree with eddiecat (sorry).
Stratford on Avon is a lovely place to be, a quintessential English town with the rich history of Shakespeare and a lovely riverside.
Admittedly it would be sinful if asylum seekers are not to be able to take a walk outside (I assume they are not prisoners in the hotel?) but I feel we cannot believe everything we read in the media.
Also not everyone judges a town by it’s shops - there are many other things to do.
There are far worse places to be than Stratford upon Avon , but I am not disagreeing that these people need their own homes as soon as can possibly be arranged.

I’ve never read that asylum seekers are confined to their hotel, so they’ll be going to the town centre and for walks I guess.
Not a great time, the waiting and so on but what do they expect?
The delays in their applications sure need speeding up tho.