Asylum seeker accused of rape at migrant hotel ‘goes missing’ in Buckinghamshire


Charles Hymas
Wed, November 16, 2022 at 4:08 PM







Robert Jenrick - Anadolu

An asylum seeker arrested for rape at a migrant hotel has gone missing after being transferred to another hotel booked by the Home Office.

MPs and councillors on Wednesday night raised concerns at the “wholly unacceptable” blunder that had allowed the 39-year-old suspect 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 on Wednesday.
It is likely to raise further questions over the use of hotels to house 37,000 asylum seekers at a cost of nearly £6 million 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, London, on October 5. He is currently on bail pending further inquiries and must return to the police station in early January.

Greg Smith, Buckingham MP, 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 him 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.

Home Office: No evidence he has absconded

A Home Office spokesman said: “If someone claiming asylum commits a criminal offence then their bail conditions would be set by the police in the usual way. Their subsequent movements would be dependent on the conditions set, and them abiding by them. The Home Office does not have powers to detain individuals on police bail.

“If an asylum seeker absconds before a decision is made on their asylum claim, or if they fail to comply with our processes, we have a dedicated national absconder tracing team to track them down and bring them back into contact with the Home Office and their claim may be withdrawn. Full security checks are carried out before anyone enters the asylum system.”

Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire Council, said: “We have written to the Home Office and the Metropolitan police to raise concerns about a recent incident 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 secure a fairer distribution of migrants around the country.

Figures compiled by The Telegraph 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.

It has provoked fury from Tory MPs, led on Wednesday 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.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/asylum-se...210825201.html