Inside the village divided over asylum seekers

you are our communities editor we're going to talk about immigration and one particular Village what are you going to tell me we're going to look at the way that this Village represents what's going on National so some of the division s that we've seen in this Village friends who have fallen out with friends neighbors no longer talking to each other all of because of the arrival of around 200 new residents into that Village we're going to look at the impact that it's had and the way this mirrors the debate that's going on nationally about Asylum Seekers darshan you've been looking at immigration and in particular how it affects one small village in leicestershire called kegworth I mean firstly how did you come across this story and why you wanted to do it well we were contacted by a number of people who live in the village and we started getting messages saying this has caused a huge divide in our village neighbors have stopped speaking to neighbors friends have fallen out and the more we looked into it we realized that kegworth actually represents what's going on across the country so we thought it would be a good place to focus on and so I mean how did this all come about this issue of immigration Asylum Seekers within this this tiny village because it all goes down to what essentially a deal being done in the hotel there yeah that's essentially it we've got a situation in this country where there are a huge number of people waiting for a decision on their Asylum claim so these are people who are applying for Refugee status in the UK but they've been waiting sometimes six months sometimes a year I've met people who've been waiting five years so there's something like 172 000 people waiting for a decision on their Asylum claim while they wait the government has an obligation to house them they have to stay somewhere so the government started using hotels now it's done this for a number of years but recently it's really been in the headlines because it turns out there's something like 50 000 people men women children in hotels and it's costing the taxpayer around six million pounds every single day right now there's an estimated 51 000 Asylum Seekers living in temporary accommodation in the UK that includes hotels and initial accommodation but how many migrants travel to the UK each year and where have they traveled from well in 2022 the highest number of Asylum applications came from Albania then Afghanistan Iran Iraq and Syria Ukrainian refugees entering the UK weren't included in the home office statistics from last year about 45 of Asylum applications were made by people who had crossed the channel by small boat that was a total of nearly 46 000 migrants prime minister Rishi stuneka said that the government's plan to crack down on Small Boat Crossings was starting to work he claims that those Crossings are down 20 compared to last year however most Crossings in 2022 took place during the summer months when weather conditions were less dangerous so it might be too early to know if those Crossings really are coming down also have to do with the fact that there's a backlog right which is why we're now seeing more and more people having to be housed in these hotels and why in the end you end up with a small you know quiet Village like kegworth having to have their hotel used for this purpose exactly so as I mentioned some people have been waiting six months once you're waiting more than six months you're officially part of this backlog and the government is under pressure to try and clear that backlog but you know we've seen cuts to the home office we've seen a fall in the number of case workers there's been lots and lots of reasons why this backlog has built up over the last 10 or so years while people are waiting the government does have an obligation to house them that's why they're ending up placing them in hotels across the country sometimes they'll be in a big city so for example I live in Nottingham down the road from me there are a couple of hotels that are being used but you don't notice because we're a big city it's an urban area it's a very diverse mixed population so they come and go they blend in um somewhere like kegworth which is a very small sleepy Village as one resident described to me not much around not a very diverse population and then you suddenly Place 200 mainly young men into that hotel they're going to stand out a lot more and attract a lot more attention and so when do we then first start seeing some sort of reaction or or protester from the local community well the protests started happening happening pretty immediately actually as soon as residents find out what was going on yeah they organize themselves pretty quickly um there was a huge protest outside it was quite Rowdy one person was arrested but after that the villagers started to organize and they formed a group called save our village they had hoodies printed they had the logo the logo printed on the hoodies and they formed a committee so they were much more organized and they'd been having a regular protests outside the hotel ever since they've also been going uh to the next Village along which is where Jeremy pick the owner of the hotel who I mentioned he lives locally as well and they've been marching on his village as well trying to get his attention and so what are their objections I mean you say the protest started immediately is it because there was no liaising with the community or is it because they've lost the use of their hotel for several months what are their objections it's a mixture of all these reasons I mean I've spent a lot of time in that Village and the arguments that I heard there do reflect the arguments that we are hearing nationally it's turning this into racist people which I don't want to be racist but it's making me dislike these people do you know what I mean we don't know anything about these people we don't know nothing about them apart from we've just had influx of so it's the fact that you weren't Consulting we're told about anything none of it protect our kids so some people for example told me they're opposed on principle to the issue of immigration they feel that the country is full that rnhs as one woman said to me is on its knees that we have a problem with our own homeless people here so they object in principle to more Asylum Seekers coming to this country others objected to the closure of their facilities so um you know the fact that their gym membership was canceled or somebody's wedding reception was canceled there are those kind of objections something else that I ate a lot was the issue that in that hotel they are mainly young men and usually an age between 18 to 34. a lot of particularly women in the village said to me that they feel unsafe they feel as if there are now groups of men walking around and somehow that makes them feel uncomfortable I asked them about this and said you know have you ever tried going up to them and speaking to them and they said they didn't want to do that they didn't feel safe but there are those who aren't opposed to the use of the hotel as well so we went down there and spent some time there and we found that there are another group of villagers who have come together and formed a group called open arms kegworth or Oak and they've said to me that whatever your politics are whatever you think of the Asylum system and whether these people should be in these hotels or not the fact is that they are there we don't know how long they're going to be there if we look at the backlog and we look at the stats they could be there for months even years so this situation has happened and they've got to make the best of it the guys have come from more torn countries they want to feel safe and welcomed and contribute to the community this populist politics that we've got now that's what worries me everyone's polarized nobody talks to each other anymore and it's Donald Trump politics isn't it why does chanting save our children I don't know why the chancing that saved them from one so some people have started to say well how can we integrate these young guys you know how can we make them feel part of the village and break down some of those barriers and some of those fear factors so they've started doing things to help the Asylum Seekers to integrate so for example they've held English classes um they've the local Bowls Club have opened up so you see some of the Asylum Seekers going bowling or playing tennis with the Villagers lots and lots of activities to make them feel welcome and when one woman said to me that it's been a two-way street it's not just them you know saying here's some raising funds for the Asylum Seekers or collecting shoes or board games or clothes they've also learned a lot from the Asylum Seekers and there's been an exchange of different cultures sharing ideas about food sharing life stories and one villager said to me it's completely changed her life and enriched her life I'm learning about their culture I'm learning different languages I see their families sometimes virtually or photos and they've met my baby and yeah it's changed my life a lot it makes you realize how lucky you are a lot of words get banded about when we talk about immigration you know stop the boats economic migrants Etc but here we're talking about Asylum Seekers can you just explain to me what you know of the individuals in terms of what countries they're coming from how they've come to the UK who are living you know within kegworth at the moment so the majority of them have come over across the channel on what we call a small boat it's often no bigger than a dinghy they have come mainly from countries like Afghanistan Syria Eritrea countries where we know there are a lot of conflicts and incidentally countries where something like around 98 of people who apply for Asylum are granted Asylum so they're the kind of conflicts that they're fleeing they do happen to be mostly young men age between around 18 to 34. um and they end up in these hotels while they're waiting for their Asylum claims to be processed they're not allowed to work so they can't earn their own money so they're reliant on the government to provide them with accommodation they do get their meals provided for them because obviously they're not allowed to earn money so they do get three meals a day um the conditions I mean you hear you know you hear the term we're staying in a hotel for all these months and often it's portrayed in the papers as something very Swanky you think of a hotel you think of room service they're often very very basic facilities um you're stuck in a room essentially because you aren't allowed to go out to work I spoke to one guy who says that you know I should always ring him after 11 because he doesn't get up early he says I've got nothing to get up for I've been here for months in this same one room so it can be quite difficult Inside the Hotel although the government recently tried to suggest that the hotels themselves are what are attracting people to come over I haven't met an asylum Seeker yet who says that one of the reasons he came was so that he gets to stay in one of these places some of those men are really suffering given the con well not just well not the conditions given that the hotel is is fine but but given as you say their day-to-day and what what happens within their life yeah it's the huge impact on their mental health and I've spoke to a lot of these young men about what it's like day to day one of the biggest things that they'll tell you about is their dignity and the fact that they aren't allowed to work this is a huge issue you know especially when we're always hearing at the minute after brexit in the current climate that we live in and we've got a huge labor shortage in this country people who come here and claim Asylum aren't allowed to work they're not allowed to claim benefits they're given something like an allowance of around eight pounds a week um and they're relying on Charities to provide clothing to provide activities for them if there isn't an active Refugee group nearby then often there aren't any activities to do luckily in kegworth there is this group providing things like English classes football matches Cricket tournaments so they have got things to do but these aren't always every day and they're not all and and they are Charities so you know I met one guy who was really embarrassed because he said he had to get some shirts and a pair of trousers from the charity and he hated it he absolutely hated it um because he felt that he's now relying on a charity whereas back home he used to work he worked in the family business he's from Syria and he said before the Civil War before Assad's regime wanted him to sign up for the Army which he didn't want to do he worked for his family business so he had never claimed benefits he'd always provided for his family and having that taken away can be very very depressing and I always find it really interesting when you meet Asylum Seekers a lot of them always want to spend a lot of time telling me what they did back home so they'll tell me about their jobs they'll tell me all about the positions they held and you realize after a while it's because they want you to know that they had a career they had a job they earned their own money before they came to this country they don't want you to see them as an asylum Seeker a lot of them have come over to the UK on small boat boats across the channel which has obviously been a huge story there's been a big increase richly Cena talked about stopping the boats stopping you know what equals illegal immigration what do they say about if you put that to them to say you know you didn't need well the argument is you don't need to come over across the channel that this is illegal that you shouldn't be doing this what is their response to that the problem is there are very few safe routes to come to this country so for example if you're from Afghanistan when the Taliban took over that country again 18 months ago for a while the British did try and get out people who had worked as interpreters who'd worked for the British whose lives were suddenly under threat from the Taliban but you'll remember it was a really chaotic withdrawal you know there were all sorts of problems with that withdrawal and it wasn't always done it wasn't done for everybody so a lot of people got left behind a lot of people are still under threat from the Taliban you can't just get on a plane and come to England if you're in Syria for example if you're lucky and you end up in a unhcr camp if you end up in an official refugee camp and you get chosen for resettlement in the UK very few people are if you're lucky you can come in that way but there are no other ways that you can come here if you're in Eritrea one of the most repressive regimes in the world how else do you come to this country you know you'll remember a couple of years ago people used to come over by on the back of a lorry via Dover the government have cracked down on that and so now the boats have become a big thing you know that's become a big business in itself there are people track people traffickers who will take advantage of you and sell you this Crossing they won't tell you how dangerous it is but they will make huge promises to you so there are very few ways for people to come in and when I say to them why did you come this way a lot of them will say I had no choice and I feared for my life if you're in a war zone perhaps you would do the same thing is the sense then that you know when you hear the sort of the general rhetoric of you know people coming over here looking for benefits looking for money how do they feel about that because is it do they think that it's it's rhetoric getting called Lost In The Weeds here in the sense that some people are getting economic migrants mixed up with you know genuine Asylum Seekers like these people fleeing for their lives there is a lot of that and people a lot of the young men that I've spoken to say that they feel people just don't understand why they are here in this country so people have forgotten about the Taliban for example they've forgotten that there's a civil war going on in Syria they don't know about Eritrea because it is such a secretive regime you don't hear a lot of news from Eritrea and people feel that they are all labeled as sponges I've heard this before um a guy who left Syria said to me do you honestly think that I would have left my mum and my brothers and sisters and come here just for benefits no that's not the case at all you know I came here to save my life because I genuinely felt that my life was under threat I mean you've seen some of the consequences not just in terms of you know people's mental health but also reports of people taking their lives yeah this has been really sad actually we've learned of around three deaths just locally um in the Kenworth hotel but also two neighboring hotels and it's had a huge impact on the community of Asylum Seekers themselves obviously their friends their families but also people who work to support them um I spoke to a lovely guy called mashar Ali who works in kegworth and he was nearly in tears as he said to me that he really wishes that he could have intervened and helped a young man from Eritrea who had arrived in the Kenworth Hotel lovely chap you know everyone describes what a lovely smile he had he was known for riding around the village on a bright yellow bike so you immediately get a an image of him in your mind on this yellow bike with a huge smile on his face he'd become quite withdrawn though in the last few weeks and people noticed that one day he told one of his friends that he was going out to the shops and his friend said to me but he never came back and we know that he went down to the river and some of his personal items and clothes were found on the banks of the river and later sadly his body was recovered some people fear especially those who knew him that he took his own life although we'll have to wait formally for the coroner to rule on that um but that had a huge impact on the local community there was also another young man from Afghanistan who had was in a neighboring Hotel um he'd had some issues with the home office he had told a couple of people who worked with him that he felt like they just weren't believing his story he left his hotel in the early hours of the morning and he was found on the hard shoulder of the motorway his friends feel that he had walked into the traffic he suffered huge head injuries and later he died in hospital and the Afghan Community here all came together and they had a huge fundraiser for him and they paid for his body to be repatriated back to Afghanistan and one of them said to me that you know he'd come here he had fled the Taliban he had come here for sanctuary and safety but in the end they ended up his body being repatriated back to the very place that he had fled from so daughter a lot of this story is obviously about what's going on in these local communities and the Asylum backlog and Rishi sunak has said that he's going to try and deal with this Asylum backlog he's also said he's gonna stop the boats as well last week it was announced that the UK's net migration figures had reached a record high according to the office for National statistics immigration had led to the UK's population increasing by six hundred and six thousand last year however that was fueled in part by Ukrainian refugees Hong Kong visas and the government's own schemes to encourage workers and international students to the UK said net migration figures are too high he insisted that he hadn't lost control of the immigration system [Music] here just this week mentioned that the government has purchased two new barges um which will house migrants which were presumably relieve pressure on hotels and local communities um what's the sense in terms of whether that will actually help this situation in terms of the Asylum backlog well the government's under huge pressure to try and stop the use of hotels even though it's steadily been increasing under Rishi sunak's own watch what the government has come up with this idea of using these giant barges but if you think about it there are 50 000 people stuck in hotels the barges can hold around a thousand people we've heard about the Bibi Stockholm in Portland Port down down south that can hold slightly more than that around three thousand it's going to be a very small dent in the numbers who are stuck in hotels at the minute and it might not apply to existing residents it might only apply to new arrivals so you have to question how much of a difference it's going to make legally what's going to happen because a lot of these places um are putting up legal challenges like the local Council for example this huge opposition we've seen opposition to hotels but there are also there's also opposition to the use of things like these giant barges on all sorts of different reasons some local communities are saying it's not appropriate some human rights groups are saying you know imagine being stuck on a barge for all that time and the small rooms the small cabins that they'll be housed in so for lots of different reasons again people are object acting so we'll have to see whether we actually start to see Asylum Seekers moved into them because there have been other places there was a place up in Yorkshire called Linton or news where the government had planned to use an old RAF base but there was a huge amount of opposition to that and then the home office quietly showed those plans so we'd have to see whether they actually go ahead although Rishi sunak said he is determined to go ahead and he also has um his Flagship illegal migration Bill coming up as well um that's facing a lot of criticism in the House of Lords and elsewhere how does that fit into this picture well he's getting pressure because he has pledged to stop the boats and it's a huge issue not just amongst the opposition people across the country but within his own party he's under pressure so some Tory MPS feel that it's not harsh enough some people are horrified at the prospect of what he's proposing they're worried about our International our International reputation and the fact that Britain has a solid reputation for always welcoming Asylum Seekers what the government's proposing is that if you do come as they say on an illegal route so if you come across a channel on one of these boats they'll have the power to detain you to deport you within 28 days to somewhere like Rwanda and then you won't be allowed to apply uh to come back into Britain again you won't be able to apply for a British citizenship ever again we've seen this done in some other countries including America and Australia but the fact that the government's talking about adopting it here has caused a lot of opposition where do you think race plays a role here when it comes to to something like kegworth the village the rumors you know because some will say that it's the type of Asylum Seeker you know given that you know this country very much has you know a legal route for ukrainians to come over and they're welcomed with open arms what's interesting is that a lot of villagers are always very quick to say to me I'm not racist but these are my concerns I don't want to be portrayed as racist that was a huge concern of the of a lot of the protesters they all kept saying we keep getting accused of being racist you know they then they kept saying we are just local villagers we're just concerned parents we're just concerned residents what's interesting is that um the far-right group patriotic alternative they've been holding a lot of protests locally and for them they have um openly mentioned things like the fact that a lot of Asylum Seekers are Muslim that they aren't white British that they're opposed to the uh migrants coming here who aren't white British we've seen them now attending one of the protests in kegworth and bringing some of these politics into it a lot of comparisons have been made with you Ukrainian scheme so one lady actually said to me I asked her about the Ukrainian scheme and she said it would be different if they were from Ukraine and I was trying to push her on why it would be different and she said you know they're from a different culture um they're not the same as us they don't share the same values um and she has pointed out a lot of people have said to me very subtle things like um they don't believe in our way of life or they've got different values to us and it's the same kind of language that we've heard from someone within government so we've heard the Home Secretary refer to cultural differences for example Joshua Sunny thank you very much talk to me thank you thank you

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 37,278

Keywords: Channel 4 News

Id: KakdFcNezW4

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023