HUNDREDS of asylum seekers living in taxpayer-funded hotels have appeared in court charged with criminal offences including rape, robbery and GBH, a Sun investigation has found.
Court records show at least one in every 100 migrants housed in them has been hauled before magistrates this year — totalling 339 cases.
French authorities were pictured handing life jackets to illegal migrants in a Channel dinghy – rather than returning them to FrancePA
SelwynPicsA crowd gather to protest outside a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex[/caption]
Sir Keir Starmer has secured a pledge from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to crack down on smugglers’ boat storage sitesPA
It is the first time the scale of criminal activity committed by those living in the controversial hotels has been brought to light.
We monitored courts across the country for the first six months of the year and noted defendants who gave their address as one of 105 known asylum hotels.
The true number of crimes could be even higher as the Home Office has refused to publish a list of all 210 in the UK currently being used to house 32,000 asylum seekers.
Of the court cases we monitored, 29 related to sexual crimes — including seven alleged rapes, one proven incident of exposure and one of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
A further 64 violence-related offences were recorded, including common assault, GBH, ABH, possessing a knife and possessing an imitation firearm.
Yesterday at least five asylum seekers who had been staying at hotels appeared in court on charges including sexual assault, assault by beating and theft.
An Ethiopian migrant accused of trying to kiss a 14-year-old schoolgirl eight days after arriving in the UK on a small boat was remanded in custody at Chelmsford magistrates’ court.
And a Libyan asylum-seeker living at a Home Office hotel yesterday admitted threatening a member of staff with a knife, at Bournemouth crown court.
The cases amount to a small percentage of all those heard by magistrates — with figures showing that 1.37 million defendants appear before JPs every year in the UK.
And The Sun’s analysis shows that migrant hotel residents are around half as likely to appear at a magistrates’ court compared to the general population.
Figures show that about two per cent of the UK population appear as defendants every year, compared with one per cent for those at the 105 hotels analysed.
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the Government of putting women and girls at risk by losing control of our borders.
He said: “This shocking Sun investigation lays bare the risk posed by these illegal immigrants.
“Women are being raped and sexually assaulted and even police officers attacked. We know that the nationalities crossing the Channel are 24 times more likely to wind up in prison than average.
“Yvette Cooper has let in the highest-ever number of illegal immigrants so far this year and has lost control of our borders.
“Women and girls are at risk as a result. I’m sick of the crime being committed by illegal immigrants coming from France. We just need to deport them all immediately upon arrival, whether to Rwanda or elsewhere.”
The Thistle City Hotel Barbican, in central London — highlighted as a hub for people working illegally as food delivery drivers — has had 32 men up in court for offences including assault of an emergency worker and theft from a shop.
Mr Philp said: “I’ve visited the Thistle Barbican to expose the illegal working there.
“The security guard was more interested in throwing me out than stopping the illegal working or rampant criminality.”
More than 50 court cases we observed were related to thefts, including from high-end shops and convenience shops, and phone snatching.
Bag thief Hocine Bouguroua, 34, who targeted punters in busy pubs in the city of London, was jailed for 24 weeks in May.
He had been living at the Thistle, which has the highest number of defendants out of the hotels we monitored.
A teenager whose address was given as the Thistle was jailed for four months after he stole £40,000 from a greengrocer in Tooting, South London.
AlamyShadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the Government of putting women and girls at risk by losing control of our borders[/caption]
Another man at the hotel got a four-month suspended sentence in March after being found guilty of arson with intent to endanger life, possessing an offensive weapon, and assault by beating.
There were 21 men up in court who listed their address as the ibis Stevenage, a large asylum hotel in the Hertfordshire town.
Another 14 cases were listed from the Holiday Inn Luton South, including one alleged sexual assault
The Home Office: “While The Sun’s analysis covers only one in 2,000 of the cases that go to court in our country, there is no excuse for people who abuse our country’s hospitality and commit crimes after arriving here.”
Yesterday Sir Keir Starmer met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who agreed to change the law so that the authorities there can investigate and act against storage facilities used by smugglers to conceal small boats.
The PM said: “Engines and component parts of the boats that are being used are travelling through and being stored in Germany.
“But they can’t be seized because the law didn’t accommodate for a country that had left the EU and therefore needed to be amended.”
Additional reporting by Tom Seaward, Rob Pattinson, Thomas Godfrey and Alex West
FIVE CASES IN OUR COURTS ON THURSDAY
EPPING, ESSEX
AN asylum seeker tried to kiss a girl in a town centre eight days after arriving on a small boat, a court heard yesterday.
Ethiopian Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, is also accused of telling the 14-year-old that he wanted to “make Jamaican babies” with her.
He was arrested the next day after allegedly trying to kiss the same girl again.
Chelmsford JPs heard the incidents allegedly happened last week in Epping, Essex.
Kebatu was staying at a migrant hotel in the town.
He denies sexual assault and harassment. He was remanded and faces trial on August 26.
BOURNEMOUTH
A LIBYAN asylum seeker living at a Home Office hotel yesterday admitted using a knife to threaten a member of staff.
Ibrahim Zouari, 34, drew the weapon during a disturbance in Bournemouth in April last year, the town’s crown court heard.
He admitted unlawfully and intentionally threatening the victim with a bladed article. But Zouari, through an interpreter, pleaded not guilty to assault by beating against the victim.
The court heard that the prosecution will offer no evidence for this charge.
Zouari was remanded in custody to be sentenced at the same court on September 5.
OXFORD
Steve ShephardMigrant Mohamed Monim, 55, ‘lashed out’ at his partner in a taxpayer-funded hotel in Oxford, court hears[/caption]
A HOTEL migrant lashed out at his partner after a Christmas Eve argument turned into a “physical altercation”, a court heard.
Mohamed Monim, 55, allegedly attacked her in a taxpayer-funded hotel in Oxford last year.
The city’s magistrates’ court heard he was nicked after a security worker intervened to break up the dispute.
Monim denied assault and faces trial at the same court on November 21.
EAST LONDON
ANOTHER hotel migrant admitted theft and fraud offences in four different towns and cities.
Hamza Esguioui, 28, snatched bags in Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, and in London.
Esguioui, living at a migrant hotel in East London, also used stolen bank cards in the capital and Canterbury, Kent, and stole goods worth £300 from a Tesco in Dover. Magistrates remanded him in custody ahead of sentencing.
NORTH LONDON
Gary StoneAsylum seeker Meludi Mikautdzee, 33, stole from a Co-op in North London, claiming he was left starving on his taxpayer-funded allowance[/caption]
ONE asylum hotel resident claimed he stole food from a Co-op store because he was going hungry on his taxpayer-funded allowance.
Meludi Mikautdzee, 33, piled products into his rucksack at the supermarket in Islington, North London, on June 26.
The Georgian pleaded guilty yesterday at Highbury Corner magistrates court.
He was released on a six-month conditional discharge.
FRANCE GIVE OUT LIFE VESTS
By Ed Southgate
FRENCH authorities yesterday handed life jackets to migrants in a dinghy instead of trying to bring them back to shore.
More than 20 migrants packed into a small boat before officials sailed up and handed out the vests.
This month French cops slashed a boat as migrants tried to set off. A BBC crew was filming.
French officers have been criticised for failing to get involved with boats already in the water, which they say is dangerous and legally complex.
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