200 single male asylum seekers to be moved into hotel in Milton Keynes town

The Home Office is to shortly move 200 single male asylum seekers into a hotel in Newport Pagnell, the Citizen can reveal.

The decision was made without consulting Milton Keynes City Council and comes at a time when the government is otherwise trying to deter migrants from arriving in Britain to stay in hotels.

The asylum seekers will stay at Harben House Hotel in the town’s Tickford Street. It is thought the place will be a holding centre, where the men stay while they are being checked and screened – and the first guests will be moving in imminently.

The same building was very successfully used by the Home Office to house refugees from Afghanistan two years ago and the Citizen reported how the families were welcomed with open arms by local people.

The refugees have now largely moved on to permanent homes - but the new planned use for the hotel is far more concerning for townspeople.

"We can’t help but be worried about 200 single male asylum seekers suddenly being sprung upon us. It’s a lot of unknown young males in one area and we know nothing about them,” said one resident.

Another said: “As a town, we loved having the Afghan refugees, but this is a very different prospect. We feel there’s a safety concern and we need to know they will be properly screened and monitored.”

The Home Office can make plans without consulting local people or authorities, and indeed council leader Pete Marland knew nothing about the plan until the Citizen told him this morning (Monday).

He checked with official sources and confirmed it was true. And he was far from happy with the Home Office.

He said: “The Conservative Government’s asylum policy is a shambles. Last week the Home Office evicted Afghan refugees from Milton Keynes and moved them to a hotel in Watford, only for another part of the Home Office to then use the same hotel to move new refugees in.

“Milton Keynes City Council has been given no notice of who the people are, what their needs may be or any other details. I'm very worried that this awful management is damaging for local community cohesion, and it is not in best interests of the people that have moved here. We will, of course, do our best but it's a very dangerous of the government give so little information which can allow rumours and misinformation to spread.

“While the Conservative government fails to "Stop the Boats" and the backlog of asylum cases increases, people are simply being dumped in our city without proper support and it's the local council and local taxpayers that pick up the results. It is disgraceful.”

In January last year, more than 100 asylum seekers were placed in the historic four-star Woughton House Hotel in Woughton-on-the-Green, which was allocated by the government as a holding centre.

Again, some councillors were not happy and a list of "pressing questions" was drawn up to ask the Home Secretary about the decision.

Lib Dem’s Cllr Paul Trendall said at the time: “Asylum seekers are welcome in Milton Keynes, and they deserve safe accommodation that is arranged in an open and honest way – the Home Office has not done this.”

The accommodation at Woughton House Hotel was managed by the Home Office and its contractors Clearsprings, based in Essex. Clearsprings workers were allegedly asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the arrangement, the council heard.

Recently Woughton House Hotel was sold on the private market and it is thought Harben House could be its replacement.

Newport Pagnell Lib Dem ward councilor Jane Carr said: “We will welcome the asylum seekers but at the same time we will try to ease the concerns of residents and ensure there is support in place and all concerns are addressed by the Home Office.”

Businesses running from Harben House Hotel have allegedly been been a very short notice to quit so it seems the move will happen very soon.

Surprisingly, it comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak starts cracking down on illegal migration. Some asylum seekers arriving in boats are being moved to disused military sites and even on the giant Bibby Stockholm at Portland Port in a bid to cut the £6m-a-day cost of housing them in hotels.

A Home Office spokesperson told the Citizen today: “We have been clear that 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.

“We engage with local authorities as early as possible whenever sites are used for asylum accommodation and work to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people.

“We are working closely to listen to the local communities’ views and reduce the impact of sites, including through providing onsite security and financial support.”