Immigration Solicitors

A hotel in Manchester has been closed to the public to accommodate more than 100 asylum seekers, who arrived at 48 hours’ notice requiring emergency accommodation.

The Amblehurst Hotel in Sale costs £125 per night and sometimes hosts parties for Manchester-based football players.

Conservative-run Trafford Council has had to spend £400,000 housing the asylum seekers in hotel accommodation.

There is a chronic shortage of suitable housing for asylum seekers and especially families, some of whom are housed in poor rental stock or in a family room in hotels, with no few or no cooking facilities.

The 100 or so asylum seekers being housed at the Manchester hotel consist of 31 families. They had previously been staying in Liverpool, but had been moved because of the current numbers of new migrants applying to stay in the UK.

Accommodation for asylum seekers is managed by the private company SERCO, which also manages some of the contracts for the electronic tagging of prisoners on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Leader of Trafford Council, Councillor Malcolm Colledge, said that while he was sympathetic to the position of the asylum seekers, he had concerns about strains placed on Trafford’s services. Cllr Colledge said:

“To be given less than 48 hours’ notice of the imposition of a large contingent of asylum seekers is, frankly, ludicrous.
“I recognise that some asylum seekers are escaping from appalling situations – and that may include the children arriving in Trafford.

“However, with schools and GP surgeries full in the Sale area, I question the logic of choosing this location. I have asked, along with partners from the NHS, for the decision to be deferred – but this is not to be.

“It is intensely irritating that as council leader I have had no opportunity to influence the decision at all."

SERCO has confirmed that the hotel is being used for asylum seekers who had been moved from Liverpool.

A spokesman for SERCO said:

“In due course, these people will be found further housing throughout the North West of England – pending the outcome of the Home Office review into their eligibility to claim asylum.

"At all times we work closely with the local authorities, the Home Office and local services – including the police, health and education bodies – to carefully manage the safe and appropriate accommodation of asylum seekers in our care."
The government has recently announced changes to benefits for new migrants to the UK as the deadline for lifting restrictions on new migrants from Romania and Bulgaria approaches on 1 January 2014.

However, asylum seekers are often fleeing violence and persecution in war-torn communities in countries such as Syria or Egypt.

Many arrive traumatised not only by war, but also a perilous journey by sea to reach Europe in the hands of criminal gangs trafficking them for large sums of money.

By the end of December, a new tracking system to detect small vessels at sea will be introduced by the EU to try and prevent deaths among refugees fleeing their own countries across the Mediterranean sea to Greece and Italy.

The EUROSUR (European External Border Surveillance System) tracking system has been designed to help protect the EU’s external borders and also address the issue of migrants risking their lives in the hands of criminal gangs in an attempt to reach Europe.

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is one of the UK’s leading firms of immigration and asylum solicitors and can advise migrants to the UK on a range of issues, including:

• Asylum
• Benefits for migrants to UK
• Citizenship
• Detention
• Illegal entry to UK
• Marriage in UK
• Right to work in UK
• Student visas

Contact Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors on 020 7923 4020.