The hotel has seen 90 criminal charges brought against residents (Image: )
Migrants caught red-handed at London Home Office hotel
More than 90 criminal charges have been brought against 41 asylum seekers in one migrant hotel. Charges brought against residents of Thistle City Barbican include sexual assault, arson, theft, burglary and drug offences, according to court records and reported by The Mail on Sunday.
The hotel was recently at the centre of a Daily Express investigation which found the hotel’s residents working illegally as delivery drivers. A Daily Express team were threatened by a resident who shouted: “I’ll bust your head” while others were seen drinking and taking drugs outside the 400-bed former 3-star hotel. Residents in the surrounding area have bemoaned the anti-social behaviour that they allege stems from the hotel while local business owners have blamed the hotel for driving customers away.
Asylum seeker shares footage from hotel room
Council worker Ufuoma Odoh, 49, said his Volvo XC40 was damaged last month when a television was flung out of a fourth-floor window and smashed the parked car’s back window.
Mr Odoh told the Mail on Sunday: “It was the second time my car had been damaged by the same set of people.”
Bledar Qirjo, who has run a Greek restaurant near the hotel for six months, said his business had been impacted by the hotel and the behaviour of residents.
He said: “My customers won’t come after 9pm because they feel scared.”
The statistics raise questions about the operation of the hotel and the taxpayer money being plunged into it.
The Daily Express found migrants working from the hotel (Image: Phil Harris)
Footage recorded by the Daily Express last month saw security guards standing by as asylum seekers set off on delivery company branded bikes in order to undertake illegal employment.
The investigation also revealed that blocked out barriers had also been erected outside the hotel to house the bikes used for the work.
Last year, hotel resident Alem Amiri was sentenced to a year in prison for arson after her attempted to set fire to the hotel he was being housed in funded by the public purse.
Reacting to the Express investigation, Lee Anderson MP said: “If this is the kind of behaviour British citizens and taxpayers are expected to tolerate in their own communities, then this Labour government has failed them massively.
“Ordinary Brits work hard every day—paying high taxes, supporting their families, and contributing to society.”