LONDON: Investors in Britain are buying up hotels to turn them into migrant shelters, with some making millions of pounds profit, an investigation has revealed.
Mail Initiated InquiryOne firm, run by a man named Naeem Anees Payman, founded the Payman Club, buying 12 properties within two years for this purpose, and another, H&H Hotels, to make £11 million ($13.48 million) per year Was ready In profit from housing migrants.
The companies are believed to have taken advantage of the collapse of the tourism industry in the UK, prompted by government lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, to cheaply take over large commercial properties.
The hotels are then passed on for use by Serco, the company responsible for housing migrants in the UK, who receive £150 per migrant per day from the Home Office.
It is believed that this year around 50,000 people will cross the English Channel in small boats to reach the UK illegally. The country also faces a backlog of approximately 150,000 unresolved asylum applications.
Most of those 50,000 are currently being housed in 140 hotels across the country, costing the UK taxpayer £6.8 million a day.
H&H Hotels, which was set up last year and is run by 32-year-old Egyptian Hassan Arif, currently runs hotels for expatriates in Skegness, Wisbech, Brighton, Eastbourne, Blackpool, Great Yarmouth and London, according to the Mail or subcontracts. ,
Despite being legal, local efforts were made to stop the practice, all of which failed. The companies have not done anything illegal, but this has not allayed fears that the government is failing to properly house migrants, resulting in loss to the taxpayer and local communities being adversely affected by the practice have been
Craig Leyland, leader of East Lindsey District Council, which covers Skegness and is taking legal action in the High Court, told the paper: “The H&H company is buying up these hotels across the country. It is opportunistic.
“They’ve got to know that the government is going to spend a lot of money on this and they can make a very good return for a year or two of investment – they’ve made their buck.
“The point is the Home Office is putting a lot of money into it, so it’s an attractive business model.
“As leader of the council, I fully understand that the Home Office is under tremendous pressure to resolve this. My point is that it is taking too long to process asylum seekers.”
The Mail said Peyman, 28, is of German Iranian descent and grew up in Albania, a country with strong business ties where half of all migrants crossing the Channel are believed to originate.
After 40 migrants were moved to one of Peyman’s facilities in the town of Kettering in Northamptonshire in November, local MP Philip Hollobon called on Home Office minister Robert Jenrick to resign.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The asylum accommodation system is under immense pressure.
“The decision on members of the public who are temporarily staying in hotels and staffing is a matter for hoteliers, and the Home Office instructs providers to carry out thorough checks before using any site.”