In a land where tea is sipped with pinkies up and queues are a sacred art form, Britain's taxpayer-funded hotels have become the stage for a tragicomedy of epic proportions. Picture this: a quaint island nation, famed for its fish and chips, now serves up a spicy new dish, migrant mayhem, courtesy of the Home Office's generous hospitality budget. The Mail on Sunday, ever the vigilant town crier, has unearthed a scandal so shocking it could curdle your custard: 312 asylum seekers, housed in 70 of the UK's finest budget inns, have been charged with a whopping 708 alleged crimes over three years. Rape, robbery, assault, and a side of arson! It's like Fawlty Towers meets Crimewatch, with a £3 billion annual bill footed by the taxpayer.
Imagine checking into the Cedar Court Hotel in Wakefield, where the complimentary breakfast buffet comes with a side of existential dread. Sudanese asylum seeker Ayman Adam, 25, decided the nightclub scene needed a bit more… cubicle-based terror. Strangling and attempting to rape a woman in the ladies' loo? That's one way to make an impression. Seven years in jail later, he's probably wondering if the hotel's four-star rating was worth it. Meanwhile, in Oxford, Khaliz Alshimery, 47, turned a churchyard into his personal crime scene, dragging a university student into a nightmare that earned him 12 years behind bars. And in Bournemouth, the Roundhouse and Britannia Hotels, mere steps from the seafront, boast 91 charges between them, including theft, assault, and enough drama to rival a soap opera. Who needs a holiday when you've got this much action?
The Home Office, bless their bureaucratic hearts, insists they're cracking down. "Removal of foreign national offenders is up 14% since the last election!" they trumpet, as if that's supposed to make us forget the £7 billion Afghan evacuation scandal, complete with a super-injunction to keep it hush-hush. Apparently, some of those airlifted Afghans had their asylum claims rejected for pesky little things like violent or sexual assaults. Whoops! But fear not, the Border Security Bill promises to cancel asylum claims for sex offenders, because nothing says "tough on crime" like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Enter Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, cape fluttering in the wind, declaring, "Deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival, no judicial process needed!" Rwanda, anyone? Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick ups the ante, demanding the small-boats crisis be treated as a "national security emergency." Forget MI5; we need MI-Hotel to patrol the corridors of Primrose Hill's finest, where one migrant was convicted of assaulting three police officers but still dodged jail. Community service? More like community disservice.
At £3 billion a year, housing 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels is the kind of splurge that makes even the most extravagant hen do look frugal. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has grand plans to shutter these migrant motels by July 2029, but until then, it's open season at the Britannia, where 45 charges were racked up faster than you can say "continental breakfast." And let's not forget the Chine Hotel in Bournemouth, where an indoor swimming pool apparently pairs nicely with 25 criminal charges. Talk about a splash.
In this theatre of the absurd, Britain's hotels have become the backdrop for a farce where the guests check in, but the crimes don't check out. The Mail on Sunday's dossier is just the "tip of the iceberg," they warn, as court records are spottier than a dalmatian. So, next time I am booking a staycation, I will double-check the guest list. I might find myself sharing the hot tub with someone who thinks "all-inclusive" means a free pass to chaos. God save the King, and the hotel industry!
"The shocking scale of serious crime committed by migrants living in hotels in communities across Britain can be revealed by The Mail on Sunday today.
An investigation by this newspaper has revealed that at least 312 asylum seekers have been charged with an astonishing 708 alleged criminal offences in just three years – including rape, sexual assault, attacking emergency workers and theft.
The Home office said, 'Removal of foreign national offenders is up by 14% since the last election, and we are also taking action through our Border Security Bill to cancel the asylum claims of anyone convicted of a sex offence.'
The MoS probe exposes how among the thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in recent years – including those who have crossed the Channel in small boats – are dangerous predators and criminals who have repaid the generosity of British taxpayers by committing serious offences.
Our research, based on an analysis of court records, provides a snapshot of crimes recorded at 70 of the 220 taxpayer-funded hotels being used to house migrants.
The alleged offences committed by asylum seekers who gave their addresses in court as one of those hotels include 18 charges of rape, five of attempted rape, 35 of sexual assault and 51 of theft.
The research also exposes 89 charges of assault – 27 of which allegedly targeted police officers or other emergency workers – 43 of drug offences, 18 of burglary and 16 of robbery.
The revelations come amid Britain's worsening small-boats crisis and will raise new questions about housing around 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels at a cost of £3billion per year.
The MoS investigation reveals:
A migrant who committed a horrific sex attack on an 'extremely vulnerable' teenage girl in a park in broad daylight was sentenced to 14 months in prison on Friday.
A woman, 20, was dragged into the grounds of a church in Oxford and raped by a migrant housed at a hotel in the city.
More than 90 criminal charges have been brought against migrants staying at just one hotel in central London – including a migrant convicted of an arson attack against the hotel.
In Bournemouth, 116 charges have been brought against 51 asylum seekers living across three hotels near the seafront.
A migrant staying in a hotel in London's affluent Primrose Hill was convicted of vicious assaults on two female police officers and one male officer.
Last night Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'This shocking Mail investigation lays bare the risk posed by these illegal immigrants to the British public. We just need to deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival, with no judicial process, either to Rwanda or elsewhere.'
Our findings come days after it emerged that the Government has been running a secretive operation to smuggle 18,500 Afghan migrants to Britain as part of a scheme projected to cost £7 billion.
A 'super-injunction' was used to keep Parliament and the public in the dark for nearly two years after a British military official inadvertently leaked the data of thousands of Afghans, prompting one of the biggest peacetime evacuation missions in modern British history.
Several of the Afghans on the list previously had their asylum claims rejected for violent or sexual assaults.
The Government does not publish statistics on crimes committed by asylum seekers – and police reports rarely give the immigration status of defendants – meaning the scale of the migrant crime wave has, until now, been unknown.
But an MoS probe scoured thousands of magistrate courts records and cross-referenced defendants' addresses with those of 70 taxpayer-funded hotels housing asylum seekers to compile a dossier of the 708 criminal charges.
Our database includes migrants who have been convicted of offences, those who have been acquitted and those involved in ongoing court cases.
Astonishingly, this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg because court records are often incomplete or missing and the number of hotels examined by our audit represent less than one third of the hotels being used to house migrants across the UK.
In one shocking case, an asylum seeker strangled and tried to rape a woman in the female toilets at a nightclub in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Sudanese asylum seeker Ayman Adam, 25, who had been staying at the nearby four-star Cedar Court Hotel, was jailed for seven years last year after he followed the woman into the toilets at Truth and pushed her into the cubicle, pinning her over the toilet while he strangled her.
In Oxford, a university student was sexually assaulted by asylum seeker Khaliz Alshimery late at night in a doorway in November 2023.
The woman escaped but Alshimery, 47, followed her before dragging her into the churchyard at St Clement's Church and raping her.
Alshimery, who was staying at a migrant hotel in the city, was last year jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of rape, sexual assault by penetration and three counts of sexual assault.
In March last year, a migrant named Rabie Knissi, who was staying at the Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea, Portsmouth, was jailed for ten years after a horrifying sex attack against a woman in her 40s.
After striking up a conversation with the woman, whom he did not know, Knissi pushed her up against a parked car and attempted to rape her.
He refused to attend Portsmouth Crown Court during his trial but was convicted of attempted rape, assault by penetration and actual bodily harm.
Detective Richard Gibson of Hampshire Police said: 'This was a particularly nasty and violent attack. Incidents of this nature have a devastating and lifelong impact on victims.'
Meanwhile, in Bournemouth, our figures identified 46 criminal charges against migrants at the Roundhouse Hotel and 45 charges against the Britannia Hotel, which are just 180 yards from each other and close to the resort's seafront.
Another 25 charges were made against those staying at the Chine Hotel, which boasts an indoor swimming pool.
In March, a 25-year-old migrant staying at a hotel in Primrose Hill was found guilty at a magistrates' court of 'assault by beating' three police officers.
He escaped jail and received a community sentence.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick last night demanded that the small-boats crisis 'be treated as a national security emergency'.
He added: 'Illegal migrants breaking into our country should have no route to claiming asylum and be held in detention until they are deported, not in hotels on high streets.'
Some 32,345 asylum seekers are living in hotels, while 66,683 are living in houses, flats and bedsits across the country.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed last month that Labour wanted to close every migrant hotel by July 2029.
The Home Office said last night: 'We do not tolerate criminality of any kind and will be thoroughly investigating all the allegations raised in this report.''