Migrants barricade entrance to Comfort Inn hotel in protest over ‘smelly toilets’ and being forced to share rooms in groups of four – and say it’s ‘not as nice as it looked on Google’
- Group left three-star Comfort Inn in Westminster and decamped to pavement
Asylum seekers are staging a protest at a central London hotel where they complain they are being treated ‘like animals’ with four of them to a single room.
The group complain that instead of the ensuite single rooms they had at a guesthouse in Essex they are now being forced into singles with two bunk beds and a ‘smelly toilet’.
Yesterday, 25 of them refused to go into their rooms at the three-star Comfort Inn in Westminster and decamped to the pavement.
This morning, around 20 people remained outside the Comfort Inn in protest at the cramped conditions inside, with pictures showing suitcases and blankets strewn across the pavement.
One of the protesters, a 27-year-old Iranian, told the Telegraph: ‘Two square metres is not enough for sleeping four people. And when you go to the toilet, the smell damages you.’
A group of asylum seekers are complaining of being treated ‘like animals’ at the three-star Comfort Inn in Westminster
Another Iranian, who is 21 and had also crossed the Channel, said the Comfort Inn had looked ‘nice’ on Google maps but ‘when you get in, it’s like a jail’… ‘they treat you like an animal’.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old from east Africa who crossed the Channel in a small boat said they had been given private rooms at another hotel in Ilford, Essex. He said: ‘We need a private room. How do you live with four men?’
In a letter to the Home Secretary, the leader of Westminster City Council expressed his ‘deep concern’ that around 40 refugees were placed in the borough on Wednesday night ‘without appropriate accommodation or support available’ and no prior communication with the local authority.
READ MORE – Archbishop of Canterbury vows to keep fighting the Government’s immigration reforms
Adam Hug complained that asking people who ‘are likely to have been through significant and traumatic events’ to share ‘an inappropriately-sized room with multiple strangers defies common sense and basic decency’.
He said the Government’s demand created ‘safeguarding and health risks’, and noted that ‘leaving them on the street for multiple nights is not an alternative’.
Rough sleeping teams have been supporting the refugees, according to the council, which claimed the Home Office had not put forward any resolution to the matter.
The asylum seekers, who are from Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Bangladesh, have put up posters at the hotel entrance and on traffic lights reading ‘help us’ and ‘this is a prison, not a hotel’.
The Comfort Inn is currently closed to paying guests but usually charges around £150 a night for what it describes as ‘good value accommodation’.
The guesthouse is rated three stars on TripAdvisor but the last eight reviews have all been one star.
Another reviewer, who stayed in March 2023, wrote: ‘Just really really grim. One of the smallest rooms I have ever had the misfortune to stay in (literally 30cm wider than the double bed in it) with a bathroom literally in a cupboard (you have to admire the audacity to even try and fit a toilet and shower in that space).’
A second called it a ‘hotel from hell’ and complained of the ‘horrendous conditions’ inside their room, while others called it a ‘dump’ and warned ‘avoid at all costs’.
The Home Office is currently housing 50,000 asylum seekers in hotels and officials are desperate to find ways to reduce the estimated £6million a day bill.
READ MORE – Braverman ramps up pressure on PM over migration
Ministers are believed to be advocating the increased use of shared rooms over concerns smuggling gangs are trying to lure migrants with the promise of ‘luxury’ accommodation.
Asylum seekers in hotels are allowed to come and go and receive £9.10 a week to cover any costs beyond bed and board, which is already paid for.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Despite the number of people arriving in the UK reaching record levels, we continue to provide accommodation – at a cost of £6million a day – for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute to meet our legal obligation.
‘The accommodation offered to asylum seekers by providers, on a no choice basis, is of a decent standard and meets all legal and contractual requirements.’
MailOnline has contacted the hotel for comment.
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