Wales, Uk: Over the past few weeks, UK plans to turn a four-star hotel into housing for asylum seekers have resulted in protests — including from far-right groups — in Llanelli, Wales. Several photos went viral on social media of the protest outside the hotel were taken on Thursday in front of the facility.
In June, it was announced that the Stradey Park Hotel would host asylum seekers, with spots for over 200 people. This decision by the UK Home Office drew criticism from local authorities and both pro- and anti-migrant groups.
A representative of the Wales Refugee Council told the BBC that he was worried that there was not enough room for over 200 people at the facility and that there may not be enough integration support for asylum seekers in the community.
Local Member of Parliament Nia Griffith (of the centre-left Labour party) meanwhile has criticized the fact that all 95 staff members had reportedly been let go by hotel management on short notice as “disgraceful and degrading”.
While it had been initially announced that the first asylum seekers would move in on July 10, no one has moved in thus far — more than two weeks past that date.
The BBC reported this Thursday that the hotel owners had won a temporary injunction at a High Court hearing that limits the activities of protesters.
A lawyer representing the hotel owners said that protesters had previously “dumped very large rocks by tractor” and erected a metal fence to block access to the hotel. She also said that protesters had been “verbally aggressive”, had sought to “intimidate and threaten” staff and contractors and had “slashed the tyres” of the owner’s vehicles.
