Asylum seeker rape suspect goes missing
AN ASYLUM seeker arrested for rape at a migrant hotel has gone missing after being transferred to alternative accommodation booked by the Home Office.
MPS and councillors last night raised concerns at the blunder that had allowed the 39-year-old to disappear from the hotel in Buckinghamshire.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, promised to urgently investigate the “very concerning” incident after being alerted to it in the Commons yesterday. It is likely to prompt further questions over the use of hotels to house 37,000 asylum seekers at a cost of nearly £6million a day.
The man was arrested and taken into custody by Metropolitan Police officers after reports that a teenage boy had been raped at a hotel in Waltham Forest, north-east London, on Oct 5.
He is on bail pending further inquiries and must return to the police station in early January.
Greg Smith, Conservative MP for Buckingham, said the transfer process had been “wholly unacceptable” as the suspect had not been escorted by police into the hotel in Buckingham and “has since gone missing”.
He demanded urgent action to apprehend the man and hold him in “secure accommodation” until police completed their investigation.
It is understood the Met Police maintains the Home Office is responsible for transport and accommodation and that it was wrong to suggest officers should have escorted him to the hotel.
A Home Office source said: “The bail conditions of this suspect is a matter for
the police and we do not have any powers to detain him. There is no evidence he has absconded.”
Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire Council, said: “We have written to the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police to raise concerns and are awaiting their response.”
It came as ministers signalled that asylum seekers may be sent to rural areas in an effort by the Home Office to ensure a fairer distribution of migrants around the country.
In the wake of complaints by MPS that some areas have had to house a disproportionate number in local hotels and other accommodation, ministers are looking to provide places in a broader range of local authority areas.
Figures show that half of the 120,000 asylum seekers are housed in just 25 local authority areas, equivalent to only six per cent of the 374 councils in England and Wales.
Most of the 200-plus hotels being used to accommodate 37,000 migrants are in city or town centres or residential areas and have been block booked by the Home Office. It includes a cluster of 20 in the West Midlands, housing hundreds of migrant guests. It has provoked fury from Tory MPS, led yesterday by Jonathan Gullis (Stoke on Trent North), who complained hotels in his area were “dumped on” with Channel migrants by private contractor Serco because of the city’s longstanding commitment to take asylum seekers.
“When is the minister going to tell Serco that Stoke-on-trent has done its bit and to no more use it? And if he won’t, why won’t he?” he said.
Mr Jenrick replied: “We are also attempting to procure accommodation in a much broader range of local authorities than has been seen in the past.
“Historically, the issue was centred on cities including Stoke-on-trent. We are now seeking to procure accommodation more broadly in smaller cities, towns, and in some cases in rural areas.
“That does mean, I am afraid, that as long as numbers are so high that more parts of the country experience this issue, but it does ensure greater fairness as to how, as a country, we tackle it.”
Mr Jenrick is due to meet the private contractors who secure the accommodation next week to ensure they take more account of where migrants are placed, and that along with the Home Office they give notice to MPS and local councils before selecting hotels.
MPS have claimed they have only found out about hotels being block booked via social media or, in one case, when residents had been turfed out and turned up homeless at the local council as a result.
Ministers are working on a new system that reveals where migrants are being placed in real time, how long they have been there, who they are and their needs in order to avoid them being placed in unsuitable accommodation.
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‘It does mean, I am afraid, that as long as numbers are so high that more parts of the country experience this’