Tower Hamlets mayor 'saddened' as asylum seekers told to leave hotel

Around 150 people were told to board buses and leave the premises at 8am on Monday, March 19.

They were to be moved to accommodation in different locations in the UK - from other parts of London to as far away as West Sussex in the south of England.

A letter dated March 9, seen by the Advertiser, directed the group to prepare to leave the hotel within the next few days.

It was sent by the housing group Clearsprings Ready Homes and was not signed by the Home Office.

Some of the group reported being originally told on February 28 that they would have to move out of the hotel.

The Advertiser attended on March 19 and, from 8am, hotel staff attempted to make the asylum seekers, after six to eighteen months of residing there, board the buses to be relocated.

At one point during the morning, hotel residents who had put their bags on the bus only to change their minds were seen being blocked from re-entering the hotel by staff.

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman said he was saddened after asylum seekers were told to leave a hotel in the borough (Image: PA)

After almost an hour, they were allowed to re-enter.

A father in a family-of-five said he had been experiencing an allergic reaction – inflammation on his skin – since they moved into the hotel a year and a half ago and claimed it may have been caused by his living conditions.

The man’s son is studying at a Tower Hamlets school and is set to take his GCSE exams in May. The family is now being asked to move almost a two-hour drive away.

The father said: “I’ve lost my health staying here, my family has been affected so much - it’s a very horrible environment to be in, very stressful.

“Now my son’s education is going to be affected because they’re not listening to the fact that I need to stay.”

A young woman who has lived at the hotel for nine months said she was being asked to move with two of her family members to the same area.

She said: “They told (us) to leave – and that if I don’t leave, I’m going to be homeless…

“I don’t know what’s going on here.”

One of the residents who has lived in the hotel for seven months said he was told he would be moving with his mother to north London.

He said: “Before it was good, but these two weeks have been stressful because we didn’t know where we’d be going.

“Luckily for me, we’re not going too far from here.

“But when you live for seven months in a place, you don’t want to change it.

“Some of these people are moving too far.”

Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: "These attempted removals sadden me deeply.

“Many of those being displaced are children and young people who have only just begun their lives in Tower Hamlets after being uprooted.

“I urge for humane treatment of all migrants, refugees, and asylum seeking peoples, and for a change in attitude towards those seeking a better life in this country and elsewhere."

Clearsprings Ready Homes declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. 

“The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day.  

“The Home Office is committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and limit the burden on the taxpayer.”

The Home Office said it could not comment on operational arrangements for individual sites used for asylum accommodation.