Hotel where Afghan boy fell from window to his death was previously 'unfit' for refugees

Asylum seekers were previously removed from the hotel where a five-year-old Afghan refugee fell to his death because it was unfit for refugees to stay in, MPs said.

Five-year-old Mohammed Munib Majeedi fell from a window of the Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel in Blonk Street onto a car park behind the hotel at around 2.30pm on Wednesday.

It is udnerstood he had only only just arrived in the UK after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan with his family.

Labour MPs are demanding a “full, urgent, independent inquiry” into Mohammed’s death and into the decision to house refugees at the hotel, as it is understood there were previous concerns around fire safety at the building.

Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh, who is also a Labour shadow frontbencher, said: “We know that the Home Office placed some refugees there last August, in 2020, and then moved them following concerns about the suitability of that accommodation.

“So why vulnerable families from Afghanistan, involving children, were placed in this accommodation again this year is a very serious question that they have to urgently answer.”

She added: “The Home Office has a duty of care when placing asylum seekers of any description, but especially under their resettlement scheme, here in the UK, and clearly that duty of care has been at the very least undermined, if not breached.”

Ms Haigh, Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts, Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake, Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield, and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP Gill Furniss have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel.

She said the fact that the refugees had now been removed from the hotel “demonstrates that they know that is unsafe and unsuitable”.

She said: “It’s just absolutely appalling that the family had fled unimaginable horror in Afghanistan, to come to this country seeking safe haven, find themselves placed in unsuitable accommodation, and now have to face this tragedy of equally unimaginable proportions.”

Sheffield City Council said the Home Office stopped using the hotel in November last year.

The Home Office did not deny the claims that the hotel had been deemed 'unfit' for refugees and said: “We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of a child at a hotel in Sheffield. The police are providing support to the family while the investigation continues and we are providing accommodation and support.

“We are absolutely committed to ensuring that Afghan refugees are appropriately accommodated and supported and we are working hard with local authorities to deliver this.”

The Refugee Council has also called for a review of the accommodation offered to Afghan refugees.

A spokesman for the Afghan Community Association in Sheffield said: “Whether it was a mistake or something, I don’t know, but what happened is not acceptable at all.”

Liberal Democrat peer and former leader of Sheffield City Council, Lord Scriven, said officials needed to “take a long look at themselves”.

He said: “These refugees are fleeing from some of the most horrendous and traumatic experiences one could ever begin to imagine. So why on earth the Home Office thinks it is acceptable to put them into a hotel that they’ve already withdrawn previous vulnerable people from, is jaw-dropping.

“The council should not have stayed quiet about this, but should have made it very clear on our soil, in Sheffield, as the first city of sanctuary, this wasn’t good enough.

“Senior officials and the Home Secretary need to take a long look at themselves in the mirror tonight and question their conscience as to why they feel it was acceptable.”

It is understood the boy's father worked at the British Embassy in Kabul and the family came to the UK three or four weeks ago, landing at Birmingham Airport, then staying in Manchester for their Covid quarantine.

A fellow refugee staying at the hotel said the boy arrived in Sheffield four days before the incident.