Asylum seeker hotel at centre of Knowsley riots to shut down in new government plans

A hotel housing asylum seekers which saw a riot will be one of the first to be emptied its occupants after plans were announced by the government.

A police van was set on fire and missiles were thrown at officers after a demonstration outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, Merseyside, on 10 February.

It has now been included in the first group of hotels in the government's plans to cut the number housing migrants by 50 over the next three months.

Confirming the plans in the House of Commons the Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told MPs the process of “exiting” the first tranche of accommodation will begin in the coming days, and confirmed the hotel in Labour MP Sir George Howarth’s seat of Knowsley is among the first.

During the statement, Sir Howarth welcomed the ending of the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, before asking about the hotel being used in his constituency.

He added: “People need to tone down the rhetoric and stop peddling false narratives about what’s going on with refugees.”

Robert Jenrick said: “I did contact his [Sir Howarth] office earlier today to notify him that the hotel that he is speaking about will be included in the first tranche of hotel closures.

"I think that incident that he experienced highlights why this is not an appropriate form of accommodation.”

The immigration minister described the plans as a “milestone” but "not enough" and not a moment for “triumphalism”.In his statement to the Commons, he said the plans are possible because of “the progress we’ve made to stop the boats”.Shadow Immigration Minister, Stephen Kinnock, said the announcement demonstrates the Government’s “utter lack of ambition” as the number amounts to a “paltry” 12% of total usage.Mr Jenrick admitted the use of hotels had been “damaging”, saying he, the home secretary and the prime minister thought it was “completely unacceptable and must end as soon as practicable”.He said on Tuesday 24 October: “One of the most damaging manifestations of this problem has been the use of hotels to meet our statutory obligations to house those who arrive illegally who would otherwise be destitute… I can inform the House that today the Home Office wrote to local authorities and MPs to inform them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels, hotels in all four nations of the UK.“The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly, but we will not stop there.“We will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats and we will be able to exit more hotels.

"And as we exit these hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resource to facilitate the orderly and effective management of this process and limit the impact on local communities.”

The Refugee Council warned that cutting the number of hotels could be a factor in what it described as a developing “homelessness crisis” among migrants.Chief Executive Enver Solomon said: “The cost and chaos of an asylum backlog that has spiralled out of control is a result of gross Government failure leaving people in limbo for years on end.“In closing hotels we are now seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before they are evicted from accommodation.”Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, accused the Government of trying to “distract from the catastrophe it has made by announcements such as today’s.”“The only real way to reduce the demand for Home Office accommodation is to focus on fairly and efficiently determining people’s claims rather than simply refusing to process them,” he said.

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