Far-right activists have filmed themselves storming a hotel with migrants inside and confronting them about ‘where they are from’ before leaving as police were called.
Members of Britain First gained entry to the Daresbury Park building in Warrington, Cheshire, and knocked on bedroom doors.
The protesters recorded themselves asking the guests what countries they were from, with some answering Iraq and Sudan.
They approached an Iranian man and blasted him for staying there for free, with the cameraman saying: ‘I pay my taxes, I’m paying for your stay in this hotel.’
Next the group corner a Sudanese man in his bedroom and an Iraqi-Kurdish with his wife and six children in one of their three rooms.
They quiz the men over their housing situation and probe for details about how long they have been in the hotel.
Members of Britain First gained entry to the Daresbury Park building in Warrington, Cheshire, and knocked on bedroom doors
Next the group corner a Sudanese man (right) in his bedroom and an Iraqi-Kurdish with his wife and six children in one of their three rooms (left)
The Home Office this month booked 4,000 hotel rooms for asylum seekers amid pressure from a surge of cross-Channel migration and the coronavirus pandemic.
Hotels in Hull, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow are among those used due to a shortage of permanent homes for migrants while their asylum claims are assessed.
Companies which provide accommodation had been permitted to find rooms in places not part of the scheme that oversees where the newcomers are dispersed.
The Britain First activists continued through the hotel room and spoke to an Iraqi woman who had been there for three months.
They later stopped a Libyan man, to which one of them said: ‘Can I just say you’ve got hair like Colonel Gaddafi.’ The asylum seeker smiles and replies: ‘No, it’s my hair.’
But three white men then entered the room and led the migrant away, to which one a female protester said: ‘Excuse me, that was a bit rude.’
The protesters recorded themselves knocking on doors and asking the guests what countries they were from, with some answering Iraq and Sudan
The Britain First activists continued through the hotel room and spoke to an Iraqi woman (pictured) who had been there for three months
Another male one said: ‘And here we go, the migrant hotel police have obviously come out.’
The female activist confronts them saying: ‘Our taxes are paying for their stay in this hotel, so we have every right to challenge you.’
The cameraman said: ‘These are the migrant hotel police by the looks and you can see just down the end there all the migrants are being ushered back to their rooms.’
He added: ‘And these gentlemen have just turned their backs to us and are not talking to us.’
The group then tried to talk to migrants who emerge on a balcony, but are drowned out by a man shouting: ‘Go to your rooms.’
The cameraman added: ‘This is absolutely shocking, the fact the British taxpayer are paying for all of this.
‘Why can’t we do this with our homeless veterans. Why can’t the Prime Minister just get out of bed and say I want every homeless veteran in the country rounded up and put into hotels.’
Britain First Organiser Ashlea Simon said the group were told not to harass the migrants and asked to leave the hotel.
She said: ‘A lot of the migrants have been willing to speak to us about how long they’ve been here.
‘Some have been here three months, four months. Some have three rooms because they’ve got so many children with them.’
She added ‘three burly men came out of nowhere’ who called the police told them not to speak to the migrants.
She also criticised that taxpayers’ money was going on putting up the migrants when British people are still sleeping rough.
Yesterday another another 26 Sudanese migrants were picked up in three boats in the English Channel – taking this year’s total to more than 5,000.
Migrants pictured being brought into Dover, Kent, while on board a Border Force vessel yesterday
This boat was found on Shakespeare Beach, Dover, around 6.30am yesterday. Around five more were towed into the harbour in Kent earlier in the morning
Guest houses being used to house asylum seekers include The Scarisbrick Hotel in Southport and the Royal Hotel Hull.
The Home Office and asylum accommodation providers Mears, Serco and Clearsprings use hotels due to the halting of all removals of applicants from properties amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Britain First’s march on the Daresbury Park hotel was widely condemned after the video was posted on social media.
Head of advocacy at campaign group the Refugee Council Andy Hewett told the Evening Standard: ‘People who come to the UK in search of safety and protection deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
‘They have a legal right to claim asylum, and the government has a responsibility to ensure people seeking asylum do not become homeless or destitute while they await the outcome of their claim.
‘It’s shameful that far-right groups feel entitled to intimidate people seeking asylum and make them feel so unwelcome.’
A social media user commented: ‘I cannot imagine the fear that these people felt when confronted by half a dozen angry white men at the front door of their temporary homes.’
He added: ‘They seek sanctuary and refuge, not hostility and hatred, they fled from that.’
A another posted: ‘Why don’t they go ask the people spending ”their tax money” where it’s going instead of harassing refugees?’
A spokesman for Cheshire Police told MailOnline: ‘At around 7.10pm on Tuesday 25 August police reports of a potential breach of the peace at a hotel on Chester Road in Daresbury.
‘The caller reported that a small number of protestors had entered the building. Officers attended the premises and on arrival the group had left the site.
‘No complaints were made by anyone present at the hotel and enquiries into the matter are ongoing.’
A Home Office spokesman added: ‘Any violence or abuse directed towards asylum seekers is completely unacceptable.
‘We take the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and we are taking all necessary and legal steps to protect the people in our care.
‘All incidents at our accommodation providers are reported to the Home Office immediately, and we then work with the provider to put in additional measures if required.’
Daresbury Park Hotel has been approached for comment.