Claims a hotel houses asylum seekers are refuted

Birmingham City Council says the hotel is accommodating homeless people, not people seeking asylum

A council has taken to social media to address claims a hotel is being used to house asylum seekers.

Birmingham City Council said it was countering misinformation, and its post about the Superior Hotel, Dudley, is the first in its 'Truth Matters' campaign.

The authority said not a single person staying at the hotel on Birmingham Road is an asylum seeker, and all the residents are homeless people in need of temporary accommodation.

In recent months, there have been anti-immigration protests in Dudley in a demonstration over the use of hotels for asylum seekers, leaving some residents and those living nearby frightened, local MP Sonia Kuma said.

A post on the social media account of the leader of Birmingham City Council, councillor John Cotton stated that truth matters.

"Myths and misinformation can cause confusion, distract from real issues and people's experiences, and in the worst case, cause division and hate," he said.

"That's why we must all do everything we can to call out and counter misinformation."

In relation to the Superior Hotel, the authority said it uses hotels as the "last resort" to provide temporary accommodation for those who are homeless.

"We are building new homes, but these cannot come fast enough. It's a challenge across the whole country, not just Birmingham," Cotton added.

Sonia Kumar said people in the hotel and nearby residents had said the protests were "a frightening time"

Kumar, MP for Dudley, told the BBC: "We've had two rounds of protests in Dudley regarding the Superior Hotel when we know there are no asylum seekers at all housed there. It's for families.

"We've had a couple of residents and people near the hotel that have spoken to us and said that it is quite a frightening time, to have people come to your door that you don't know why, you're not sure what is happening and for a child, a young person, it's gonna be quite alarming."

She said the city council had issued its statement to "correct the record".

"I think we do need to be responding to misinformation at a more rapid rate," Kumar explained.

"We want to make sure that when people are protesting, they're protesting for the right reasons and have all the information at hand, which wasn't then given to people that were protesting.

"The person who actually led this protest was informed there were children there at Superior Hotel, so it's a shame that they didn't think maybe not to target that hotel in particular."

'Tackle illegal immigation'

When asked what she would say to the people of Dudley, Kumar said: "I'm listening. I understand the frustrations you have about illegal immigrants, the effects on the economy."

Kumar also differentiated between "two types of illegal immigrants", between those fleeing persecution and hardship with a "genuine reason to seek asylum", and those trying to "take economic value from our system, exploiting British values and our British systems".

"I understand what people are angry about and that's why I'm keen to make sure we are looking at the root branch at how we tackle illegal immigration," she said.

"The illegal immigrants that have been placed in hotels was a Tory policy, it's not a Labour policy and we're going to end it by the end of this parliament."

The MP said "diverse and robust conversations" were taking place as to the appropriateness of where people should be housed across the borough.