MORE than 70 asylum seekers are living in an Andover hotel.
The families, who are from a variety of countries across the Middle East, began being housed in the town in March, and are going through the process of applying for right to remain in the UK.
Asylum seekers, unlike refugees, have not been formally recognised as having a right to live in the country they are being housed. They have usually fled their home country due to violence or persecution.
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Kerrie Morley, a mother-of-two from Picket Piece, has been volunteering with refugees and asylum seekers around the world for the past seven years and, after hearing about a family being housed in Andover, she began working with the hotel’s residents several times a week.
She said: “I turned up at the hotel and there were no cars in the car park. It was dark, but there were lots of people outside. I got out of my car and I met my contact, and I could hear lots of languages around me.”
The hotel, Kerrie says, has been booked up by the Home Office to offer asylum seekers a place to stay while they apply for the right to remain in the UK. The Advertiser has chosen not to name the hotel that is being used.
When she first arrived, there were 73 people living there, although she believes that number has fluctuated over time, as she spots new faces on each visit, but knows a few lucky families have been able to secure more permanent accommodation.
She says the majority of the families are from across the Middle East, and she doesn’t know how they have ended up being placed in Andover.
“We are being extremely welcoming to Ukrainian people, but people from other countries are also trying to claim asylum and while you wait to get right to remain, you cannot work and you are left in limbo which is such a shame because you cannot do anything,” she said.
“As soon as you say hotel, people think of five star service and that’s not the case.
“There is definitely support there, you get a room for your family and you are provided with food. But there is nothing to do. It’s the children that I really feel for.”
Due to changes made following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, children seeking asylum can now access education, and Kerrie has recently been working with Councillor Nicholas Asamoah to offer the young people the chance to play football.
She added: “They have no choice, no independence, no control. Nobody gets in the back of a lorry or gets on a boat unless it’s safer than the land that they are living on.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are dealing with an unprecedented increase in asylum cases but despite this we continue to ensure that the accommodation provided is safe, secure and leaves no one destitute.
“The Home Office does not comment on operational arrangements for individual hotels.”
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