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Footage from hard-to-reach hotels hosting asylum seekers shows infestation issues, which an insider said will not be reported because of fears that residents will be deported
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Asylum seekers catch mice and maggots in hotel accommodations
Asylum seekers stuck in hotels waiting to be processed share the “repulsive” state of the accommodations in which they live.
Footage from one of the hotels currently housing dozen of asylum seekers shows insects crawling in the shower floor.
Another video, recorded in another hotel, where residents asked the mirror not to identify themselves for fear of reprisals from the owners, shows maggots sliding across the floor.
A third footage shows mice roaming around a bedroom while water rushes through the ceiling of a house where a family of asylum seekers lived.
The ceiling of this house later collapsed.
Photos from a hotel show two children who spent time in the Calais jungle, covered in bed bug bites.
Maggots crawl across the floor in a hotel
(
Image:
The mirror)
Water flowed through the ceiling of a family home
(
Image:
The mirror)
The images, all of which were taken in West London, were shared with the Mirror to highlight the conditions many people seeking asylum in this country live in, while sometimes waiting for years for their refugee status to be approved or denied.
They live on small pocket money of several pounds a day and have no right to work until their applications are approved and often cannot buy basic toiletries to clean their rooms.
Fear of being kicked out of the country by the Home Office means most people don’t bring up issues with their housing, a source told the Mirror.
This can result in health hazards and infestations going unreported and untreated.
Access to the hotels they stay in is severely restricted, meaning the conditions inside remain largely a mystery.
Volunteers are required to meet residents outside in the parking lots to deliver clothing donated by friendly British people.
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Less charitable people drive to hotels to dispose of garbage bags, a kind of filthy protest against asylum seekers’ efforts to earn a living in the countryside.
An immigration insider said: “The people who live in scattered shelters are housed across the country and relocated with a short notice. You can’t mind.
“Very often they are not informed until they are in the transport where they are going.
“This is called distribution accommodation. If they stay in a hotel they pay £ 8 a week.
“They are afraid to speak up when there are problems and are afraid of not appearing grateful.
Asylum-seeking children are covered with bed bug bites
The children were ravaged by the beetles
“In the case of the jumping termite shower, the boy never used it. He was too deterred to wash.
“Many, many rooms have a real bed bug infestation. That’s a really big problem.
“If they didn’t feel in danger where they come from, they wouldn’t live like that.
“There is a lot of wasted talent in these families.”
The videos were shared with the Mirror at the end of a tragic week in which 27 people died trying to get into the UK.
They lost their lives when their rubber dinghy capsized while trying to cross the English Channel from France.
Five women and a girl are reportedly among the victims so far confirmed as dead in what has been described as the deadliest incident of its kind ever.
People currently in Calais but hoping to get to the UK told The Mirror how they planned the dangerous journey despite the freezing, rough water ahead of them.
They said people smuggling prices of at least £ 2,000 per head for a 45-meter boat with about 40 to 50 people squeezed into it meant the gang involved in the tragedy had taken at least £ 60,000 in cash from those who died at sea .
Other estimates put it as high as £ 6,000 per person.
Canal crossings resulted in many deaths this week
(
Image:
Stuart Brock / LNP)
Jon, a 27-year-old former electrical engineering student from Eritrea, tells how he and 13 other asylum seekers cheated to death in the sea on the same day, 27 more perished.
He set out in a small boat and paid £ 200 for his share just to have the boat sink into the icy water.
Once, and when they make the crossing, many people are picked up and processed by the authorities.
This is the beginning of a very lengthy process that often involves kicking people out of the country.
While waiting to be heard on their application, many of them are dragged across the country to live apart from their travel companions, often with people who do not have a common language.
Although last year’s statistics have not yet been compiled, data from 2019 show that the UK receives far fewer first-time asylum applications than other European countries of its size.
2019 44,494 applications compared to three times as much in Germany and more than double in France and Spain.
The Ministry of the Interior has been asked to comment.
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