Murder, rape and assault: The most common offences migrants living in taxpayer-funded hotels have been accused of

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

The shocking array of crime committed by migrants living in taxpayer-funded hotels can today be exposed by the Mail.
Rape, murder and assault are among the offences at least 300 asylum seekers have been charged with in just three years – as well as arson, robbery, dangerous driving, fraud, possessing indecent images of children and supplying drugs.
However, the true toll of migrant crime blighting neighbourhoods across Britain may be higher, given our investigation only looked at around 65 hotels known to have accommodated migrants as part of a £3billion Government scheme.
Fuelled by the worsening small boats crisis in the Channel, up to 220 sites – including the four-star Copthorne Hotel near Gatwick – were needed to house asylum seekers at one point, many of whom arrived illegally on dinghies.
Our analysis of court records reveals that assault (69) was the most common crime migrants were accused of, followed by theft (54). Drug-related offences (45), sexual assault (35) and weapon-related crimes, such as possession of a knife (31) rounded out the top five.
Laying bare the astonishing scale of crime committed by migrants in hotels, the Mail last month separately revealed:
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;
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;
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.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the revelations 'shocking' and said they exposed 'the risk posed by these illegal immigrants to the British public'.
The Government does not publish data 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 a mystery.
The Mail's investigation scoured thousands of magistrate courts records and cross-referenced defendants' addresses with those of taxpayer-funded hotels that house asylum seekers.
Armed with this, we were able to compile a dossier of hundreds of criminal charges.
Migrants who have been convicted of offences are included in our database, as well as those who have been acquitted and those involved in ongoing court cases.
Astonishingly, this is likely to be an underestimate because court records are often incomplete or missing.
In one disturbing 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.
A single hotel in central London – the Thistle City Barbican – saw 41 residents charged with a total of 90 offences in three years.
Residents who live nearby told the Mail that police are regularly called to the three-star hotel, which has also been identified as a hub of illegal working.
Earlier this summer, pictures emerged of migrants staying at the Thistle City Barbican riding off in Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats jackets with food bags, while electric bikes were seen outside.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves earlier this summer vowed to finally end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the next general election.
Figures show £3.1billion was spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2023-24.
Around 30,000 are currently staying in hotels, which are typically turned over entirely to migrants, with normal custom turned away.
Ministers keep their exact locations a secret over safety and privacy fears, although many have already been outed, including the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, where a coach full of suspected migrants was seen arriving last week.
Footage of the passengers getting off the coach showed the majority were men, with the vast majority dressed in matching grey tracksuit tops and bottoms. They were helped by masked security guards, some of whom appeared to be wearing body cameras.
Last year mobs surrounded asylum seekers' accommodation, and even threatened to burn them down, in the wake of the murder of three girls in Southport.
In July, 100 demonstrators protested outside a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex.
If their accommodation provides meals each asylum seeker gets £9.95 per week, this rises to £49.18 per week if no meals are provided.
Extra money is also given to pregnant women and mothers of young children.
Asylum seekers are also entitled to taxpayer-funded NHS healthcare, prescriptions, dental care and children under 18 are required to go to school, where they may be able to get free meals.
What is an asylum seeker?
Asylum is protection given by a country to someone fleeing from persecution in their own country.
An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is awaiting a decision on whether they will be granted refugee status.
An asylum applicant who does not qualify for refugee status may still be granted leave to remain in the UK for humanitarian or other reasons.
An asylum seeker whose application is refused at initial decision may appeal the decision through an appeal process and, if successful, may be granted leave to remain.
To be eligible for asylum, the Home Office says: 'You must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution.'
This could be based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or political opinion, or any other factor that places them at risk in their country.
Only once asylum seekers are granted refugee status or another humanitarian cover are they allowed to work, study and claim benefits in the UK.
Small boat arrivals now make-up nearly a third of all asylum claims, Government data shows. Others arrive through legal routes such as on a student visa before they lodge an application.
In response to the original Mail analysis last month, the Home Office said: 'Removal of foreign national offenders is up by 14% since the last election.
'We're also taking action through our Border Security Bill to cancel the asylum claims of anyone convicted of a sex offence.'
The Mail's analysis is likely to underestimate the true extent of some alleged crimes, because if someone is charged with two counts of the same crime on one rap sheet, we have only counted it as one to avoid cases of double counting.
For example, if an individual was charged with two counts of assault and one of theft on the same rap sheet, we will have counted one assault and one theft.
Similar crimes have been grouped together, such as attempted rape and rape being grouped as just rape, and driving offences, such as driving without insurance, driving without a licence, being grouped under 'driving offences'.