Stradey Park Hotel: Plans to house asylum seekers 'not sensible or practical' say campaigners

The controversial plans to house asylum seekers at the hotel has led to around 100 staff losing their jobs. Credit: ITV Wales

Campaigners have called the plans to house asylum seekers at Stradey Park Hotel, Furnace, "not sensible or practical" as they deliver a letter to the Home Office.

Residents recently camped out alongside the building in anticipation of more than 200 asylum seekers moving into the hotel. 

Around 100 people lost their jobs at the hotel when it was closed to make way for asylum seekers earlier this month. 

A group of local politicians have visited the Home Office in London this week to handdeliver a letter directly to UK Government Ministers calling for them to "think again" on the plans.

More than 12,000 people having already made asylum claims in the UK so far in 2023. Credit: ITV Wales

Salah Rasool from the Welsh Refugee Coalition told ITV’s Wales This Week: “It is not a good way of respecting someone or asking them to integrate.

“I have been supporting somebody who has been in a hotel for the last 18 months. 

“That is shocking. It costs a lot of money from the public purse, and [impacts] that person’s mental health, because he has skills, he has something to contribute, but he is in a real terrible state. 

Llanelli MP Nia Griffith was one of the campaigner who delivered the letter to the Home Office and says there are genuine concerns about how public services will cope with an influx of people which will grow the population of the town by 50%.

She said: "The complete silence from those involved in driving this proposal has led to fear and uncertainty amongst local residents.

Llanelli campaigners in London preparing to deliver the Stradey Park Hotel letter to the Home Office including Nia Griffith MP.

"There are also unresolved issues around access to the site. It is still not too late for the Home Office to drop this ill thought out and disastrous plan. 

"Our letter is calling for exactly that and for them to consider alternative models instead such as the dispersal programmes, which have been already used to good effect in Llanelli and other areas."

The UK Government is currently facing a backlog of 172,758 people awaiting an initial decision on their asylum cases.

Residents have camped out alongside the building in anticipation of more than 200 asylum seekers moving into the hotel.  Credit: ITV Wales

Of those, 128,812 have been waiting longer than six months and there are at least 7,638 asylum seekers living in Wales while their asylum applications are processed.

More than 12,000 people have already made asylum claims in the UK so far in 2023, resulting in accommodation in big cities growing increasingly harder to come by.

The UK Government has said it is “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.

“The Home Office is committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and limit the burden on the taxpayer.”