The future of the hotel used for migrants in Wokingham

I held a meeting with officials over the Home Office use of hotels in the local area to house migrants pending resolution of their cases. I stressed the undesirability of long delays both to the migrants and to the local community. If someone is a genuine asylum seeker we need to welcome them and let them get on with establishing a new life in the UK, and if they are illegal economic migrants they should not be put up for extended periods in hotels at taxpayers’ expense. We need our hotels available for their normal users, to allow business people and visitors travelling to Wokingham a good choice of hotel, and to cater for weddings, conferences and events.

I asked when the Home Office plans to vacate the hotels . They did not know.

I asked what plans they had to ensure a smooth return of hotels to normal use. They said that was a matter for the hotels.

I asked for an assurance they would not be taking any more of our local hotels. They did not think so, but could not guarantee that.

I asked why they did  not recruit more staff and get rid of the backlog of cases. They said they were doing so.

I asked why it took so long to decide a case for someone who had travelled from a safe country like Albania. They said they were now speeding these  cases up.

I asked how they handled people who had come from a safe country like France. They said these  cases could be complex and could not be done promptly.

I asked if I could assume they had not identified anywhere in our area for the idea that they transfer people still having to wait a long time from hotels to other accommodation. They thought that was true but could not confirm.

I asked for written follow up to the issues where they could not be sure of the answers, which I will share when I get it.

 

 

 

7 Comments

  1. LB
    February 23, 2023

    If someone is a genuine asylum seeker we need to welcome them and let them get on with establishing a new life in the UK
    =====
    If they didn’t claim in the first safe country, they are not genuine.

  2. Mary Walker
    February 23, 2023

    Thank you for asking these questions. The question of asylum seekers is something everyone gets worked up about. Many people felt that Brexit would sort it and are getting fed up with the number of people entering the country – especially the illegal and economic immigrants. Please keep raising the issues with the necessary departments.

  3. George Sheard
    February 23, 2023

    Hi john
    I don’t know if you are aware flights are coming into Birmingham airport some of the passengers are going into the toilets and distroying their passports so they can stay in the country this is probably happening at other airports also but not being bought to the attention of the public
    Thank you

  4. Paul Cuthbertson
    February 23, 2023

    Surely, YOU are aware of the real agenda of your Globalist UK Establishment government truly is or are you just playing politics? 34 years provides a good “political education”. Do you really think you will receive TRUE answers to your requests???? Obfuscation as usual will be the agenda. Thank fully the people are slowly waking up but unfortunately it has taken them sometime to realise they have been deliberately “misinformed” for decades.

  5. Bryan Harris
    February 24, 2023

    It would seem that the Home office is the actual problem in all of this.

    They can’t answer simple questions – that makes them pathetic.

    Sack the whole lot of them and move the immigrant function to the private sector – it would be resolved totally in months!

  6. Berkshire Alan
    February 24, 2023

    Thanks for trying to keep up with this John, although I am sure you are as fed up as the rest of us out here with the failure of those who should know, to answer anything.
    Afraid like so many other Government policies this one is also in chaos, and expensive chaos at that.
    It really should be so simple, if you do not have the correct papers, then you do not get in and are returned from where you came immediately, let alone being put up in a hotel all expenses paid for an eternity, and with no security about where you go and what you do.
    Clueless, absolutely clueless.

  7. Francesca Skinner
    February 25, 2023

    Clearly this Government and Labour have no interest in reducing or stopping immigration otherwise they would have done it long before now.

Comments are closed.