‘WE WANT TO STAY IN STOKE-ON-TRENT’
Family face being moved to Leicester after year in hotel
A FAMILY seeking asylum are pleading to be rehoused in Stokeon-trent after being told they can no longer stay at the North Stafford Hotel.
The Mokhtari family-of-four have spent nearly a year living in the 88-bed hotel, below, opposite Stoke Station and have actively ‘tried to be a part of the community’. But they are now being uprooted to another hotel in Leicester as the Home Office carries out its ‘Hotel Exit Strategy’.
It comes after the government announced in October that 50 hotels would stop housing asylum seekers by the end of January 2024. Serco, the company which oversees accommodation for refugees, is moving Abdelkader Mokhtari, his wife and their two children aged 11 and four, as part of the new strategy to return hotels ‘to their proper use by communities’.
Algerian Abdelkader has pleaded with the Home Office to remain in Stokeon-trent as he tries to rebuild his life in the UK. The 43-year-old was first informed about the move on Thursday.
He said moving to another city would be very difficult for his family who have made roots in the Potteries where his children go to school. He said: “People who came later than my family to Stoke-ontrent, they have been provided accommodation in Stoke.
“With my family’s medical problems, we felt we should have been given accommodation near to the area. My children are at school here, they will have to change schools. They want us to be out by Wednesday. I don’t know what time. They said everybody needs to be gone.”
Abdelkader shared a medical report with The Sentinel. It stated that during the family’s time at the hotel, his child broke his arm when he fell down the stairs and his 40-year-old wife suffered two miscarriages and now suffers with PTSD from her losses.
Before fleeing his home in the Algerian capital of El Djazaïr in 2022, Abdelkader faced imprisonment. He worked as a security officer for a high-profile court case involving a relative of the Algerian president.
He claims the relative was being investigated for a number of corruption charges and because of Abdelkader’s knowledge involving the case, he was due to be sent to jail.
In November 2022, he made the decision to flee and bought a plane ticket to the UK. He arrived in London with his family and stayed a number of weeks on a tourist visa before applying for asylum.
Following his application, the Home Office placed him and his family in the North Stafford Hotel, in Station Road, in February 2023. In his room are beds, a kettle and a bathroom. He has access to a communal microwave in the hotel’s kitchen.
Outside of school hours, Abdelkader admitted it could become congested in the small room. When refugees are awaiting their asylum decision, they are not able to work. Abdelkader said adults in the hotel are given £9 each per week.
While meals are provided, the payments must cover all other costs such as transport to and from school and any other services, clothes and school equipment. Abdelkader volunteers at the nearby YMCA to give back to the city he so desperately wants to call home.
Paul Burns, manager of the sports department at the charity, said: “Mokhtari is professional, personable, polite, helpful and friendly. He is trying to become part of the local community.”
Serco was unable to comment on Abdelkader’s individual case but confirmed the North Stafford Hotel is closing in line with the Home Office Hotel Exit Strategy.