THE historic port of Hull has been welcoming migrants for centuries — but angry locals fear the recent influx is so overwhelming it has changed their city for ever.
They reckon vital services are now at breaking point and the Labour Government is putting their needs “at the bottom of the pile”. And they are not alone.
The once-grand Royal Hotel in Hull is now at the centre of migrant tensions after hosting asylum seekers and becoming the site of riots[/caption]
Today we start a major investigation examining the asylum-seeker impact on communities across Britain.
On the East Coast, the symbolic heart of Hull’s migrant controversy is the Royal Hotel, where happy families would gather to celebrate weddings and christenings.
Queen Victoria once stayed there and it was popular with tourists.
However, for the past five years it has put up migrants and last summer became the flashpoint for riots.
Former factory worker Stuart Whittaker — made homeless in February when his landlord suddenly sold up — said: “I’m sleeping in cheap hotels when I can afford it, and I’m having to rely on mates to bail me out.
“Meanwhile, asylum seekers are being put up in the Royal for free, with three meals a day thrown in.
“The council and the Government are more interested in putting them up than helping me.
“There’s just no help for people like me. It’s like the local people have been shoved to the back of the queue.”
Stuart, 37, added: “I’m losing everything bit by bit. I just don’t see a way out.”
Stuart’s friend Kevin Thompson, 67, has had to rack up credit card debts to keep his pal off the streets.
He said: “Stuart’s been told there’s no help, no housing — but somehow they’ve got hundreds of migrants living in a hotel fit for a queen.
“The Royal was a landmark building. Something needs to be done.”
The cost of filling up so many UK hotels with asylum seekers and caring for them is now believed to be running at an annual £4.7billion — more than ten times the ten-year estimate when deals started being signed in 2019.
‘Intimidating’
At the Royal Hotel, a stone’s throw from the main rail station, around 70 per cent of the migrants are men. Many gather outside to smoke.
Local mechanic Laura Maundrill, 33, said: “I do find it intimidating walking past there.
You walk past and you can feel them all looking at you. It’s quite degrading as a woman.
“Young men just look you up and down and make kissing noises. They’ll whistle, like you would if you were calling a dog over. It makes me feel really awkward.”
Pub worker Tara Clappison, also 33, added: “I find it quite uncomfortable to be honest.
“You walk past and you can feel them all looking at you. It’s quite degrading as a woman.
“Especially when it is in the centre of your own city.”
The UK’s foreign-born population doubled in the first two decades of this century to nine million.
In Hull, the 2021 Census revealed that 34,962 residents were born outside the UK, a 60 per cent increase in ten years.
The number from Romania soared from 200 to 3,602 — but the migrants come from a host of countries.
Stuart Whittaker, right, says his friend Kevin Thompson, left, has had to rack up credit card debts to keep him off the streets – while migrants are housed for free[/caption]
In Hull, the 2021 Census revealed that 34,962 residents were born outside the UK, a 60 per cent increase in ten years[/caption]
The daily reality of such statistics is a massively increased strain on local services, according to those who use them.
Gran-of-three Lisa Roberts, 43, said: “My son and his girlfriend live in a tiny third-storey flat with their three children.
“There’s damp and mould and it’s no place for kids to be living.
“They’ve struggled for years to get the council to find a more suitable property but they are always told there’s nothing available.
“Other people seemed to be getting put first, ahead of the people who actually live here.”
Lisa, a former Labour voter, said she had been stuck on a three-year waiting list to see an NHS dentist and struggles to access her GP.
She added: “I understand that many migrants have come from difficult situations but we need to start putting the people of this country first.
“We are looking after a lot of people but nobody is helping us. All we are asking for is fairness.”
The Royal used to be smart. It looks good from the outside but it’s gone to rack and ruin inside now.
Paul Salisbury, local
The depth of anger that local people feel — and the extent to which they feel abandoned by the mainstream parties — was shown at last month’s mayoral elections.
Olympic gold medallist boxer Luke Campbell won Hull and East Yorkshire for Reform UK, one of a series of victories for the party across the country.
Sympathetic to migrants
Yet despite the high tensions, some locals in the city are sympathetic to the migrants’ plight.
Paul Salisbury, 54, said: “The Royal used to be smart. It looks good from the outside but it’s gone to rack and ruin inside now.
“A lot of people have issues with migrants being housed there but I want to give everyone a chance.
“All that hotel is good for now is housing asylum seekers.
“It’s not like they’re staying in suites at The Hilton. We have no idea what the people there have fled from or what their reasons are for coming across.”
Anyone trying to book a room on The Royal’s website is met with the message: “Sorry, Royal Hotel Hull does not have rooms available for your selected dates. Why not try another arrival date?”
The shock figures in today’s Sun suggest that will not change any time soon.
