MIGRANTS SLEEP ON PAVEMENT OUTSIDE HOTEL IN PROTEST DUE TO OVER-CROWDING

Migrants were set to sleep on the pavement for a third night running in protest at cramped conditions.

Around 20 asylum seekers from various countries were continuing a sit-in outside the Comfort Inn in Pimlico, central London, yesterday with their belongings.

The hotel is in a wealthy district, less than a mile from Buckingham Palace and home to numerous politicians. Resident Alex Pierre-Traves, 39, who works in marketing, said: "Calais has come to Pimlico."

The stand-off with the Home Office began on Wednesday when a group of 40 male refugees arrived from single-room accommodation in Essex and told to sleep up to four in a room on bunk beds.

Several men, who also complained about "smelly" toilets, opted to bed down on the pavement outside. Some held signs saying "Help us" and "This is a prison, not a hotel."

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Last night they told the Daily Express they were not budging.

Home Office staff met the group yesterday. The migrants later claimed they had been told to accept the rooms in 24 hours or receive nothing.

Officials have conceded that only two people would share a room before moving to alternative accommodation in Whitechapel in a fortnight.

Meanwhile, Suella Braverman has been asked why a large group of asylum seekers were "left on the street" for two nights running.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, Westminster Council leader Adam Hug expressed his "deep concern" that the refugees had been placed in the borough on Wednesday night "without appropriate accommodation or support available" and without telling the local authority.

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Yesterday three police officers intervened after the masked migrants blocked traffic on Belgrave Road.

A local hotelier, 69, said he had lost three customers, adding: "One woman cancelled and another left because she couldn't sleep at night."

Mr Hug said asking people who "have been through significant and traumatic events" to share "an inappropriately-sized room with multiple strangers defies common sense and basic decency".

The Home Office said: "The accommodation offered to asylum seekers by providers, on a no-choice basis, is of a decent standard and meets all legal and contractual requirements."

The Comfort Inn in Pimlico, not currently open to the public, usually costs £150 a night.

2023-06-02T21:11:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd