Home Office to kick asylum seekers out of North Stafford Hotel this week
Asylum seekers are to be kicked out of a landmark Stoke-on-Trent hotel this week. One refugee has told StokeonTrentLive that the 88-bed North Stafford Hotel – opposite Stoke Station – will no longer operate as an asylum seeker hostel from tomorrow.
It is understood that some of the asylum seekers will remain in Stoke-on-Trent. Others will be moved to Leicestershire.
It comes more than a year since Stoke-on-Trent City Council failed in its High Court bid to stop owner Britannia Hotels and Serco from using the North Stafford Hotel to house asylum seekers.
Latest figures show Stoke-on-Trent has more than 1,200 illegal immigrants.
The Government announced in October that the North Stafford Hotel would be decommissioned as a migrant hostel. A separate Serco contract to house asylum seekers in the Best Western Stoke-on-Trent City Centre Hotel, on Trinity Street, in Hanley, continues.
StokeonTrentLive has approached Serco for a statement regarding the latest North Stafford Hotel development. Security guards remained on patrol outside the building yesterday.
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References
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