Asylum seekers have been housed in this
hotel on the whirl for 5 years, but
process only started three weeks ago,
driven by a proposal by the home office
to move out the families with children
who were here and house single men
instead.
>> We have got enough wrong ones of our
own. We don't need to be importing
anymore. If they were coming legally,
then that's fine. But coming on the
boats and then being put into areas
where there's schools, there's
nurseries, there's vulnerable children,
and we know nothing about them. I think
it's a risk to our local area. New
government data shows in this area
there's just over 700 asylum seekers and
numbers have in fact slightly dropped
over the last year. But for some local
residents, a feeling of an ease has
grown.
>> I wouldn't even have 100 Englishmen in
that. You know, families, they integrate
into the population. go to the schools
along with every other child here, you
know, and I just think men on their own,
why have they left their women and
children there?
>> The Labourr run council said it was
asking the government to reconsider its
plan and would look at mirroring Eping
Council in a court challenge to get the
hotel shut. There seems to be this this
mindset of so-called good refugees and
bad refugees and a constant theme of
they're all uh young men of military
age. They're all um they're all rapists,
pedophiles, murderers, uh you know this
sort of thing. We don't see that as a
charity. We are dealing with normal
people who are fleeing the most
appalling terrors, war, conflict,
persecution, modernday slavery, torture,
you name it.
Only a very small number of asylum
seekers are housed in hotels in this
area. Only 5% in fact are in hotels. The
rest are in different types of
accommodation. But the protests here,
although rooted in very local concerns
when you speak to people, have become
part of this wider question about
illegal migration in general, but also
what the government is seen to be doing
about it.
>> There's no doesn't seem to be anything
to contail people. They say, "Oh, yeah,
we'll do that." And then nothing
happens.
>> It makes me feel really sad, actually.
Um I'd like to see people be welcomed in
our country and looked after. And if
they're not meant to be here and they're
here for the wrong reasons, well, okay,
we don't grant them asylum. Get them on
the boats, put them back. That's all I
can say really. I get a bit angry.
>> You get a bit angry. What is it about it
that makes you angry? It just rs me to
think we've got our own problems and the
homeless and like I say in there given
everything.
>> The local council told us it wants to
work with the government to find
solutions that are fair and
compassionate. People outside this hotel
just want to see something done.
Katherine Vatsi, Sky News.