The housing enforcement team of Croydon Council found 600 asylum seekers crammed into a 98-bedroom London hotel in Church Road, Crystal Palace, earlier this month. The Queen's Hotel was discovered to have nine people in one room and four in most of the others, as reported by the housing inspectors.
Steve Reed wrote to the Immigration Minister James Brokenshire MP after he started receiving complaints from people living nearby about noise, intimidation and antisocial behaviour by the asylum seekers in the hotel. The inspectors found one of the buildings had 500 people sleeping in it, while another building, which is supposed to accommodate up to 68, had 100 people in it.
Mr. Reed now wants to meet the Immigration Minister and the Lewisham West and Penge MP Jim Dowd to discuss their concerns. He said, "I am worried about the safety of the people living in the hotel, the sudden conversion of the hotel into a bed and breakfast hostel without consultation and the impact of an extra 600 people suddenly arriving in the neighbourhood."
A spokesman from the Home Office said, "We are taking urgent steps with our housing providers to reduce the number of people living at the Queens Hotel in Crystal Palace.
