Asylum hotel tensions rose due to Home Office 'chaos'

HOME Office failings have allowed public tensions over asylum hotels to spread, MPs have warned.

- By Martyn Brown Political Editor

They said its failure to engage with communities left space for misinformation and mistrust to grow.

Asylum hotels became a flash point over the summer with multiple demonstrations centred around the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where an asylum seeker was charged and later jailed for sexual assault.

A report by the Commons' Home Affairs Committee today says protests involved residents with "genuine concerns" while others came from outside the area "to promote divisive agendas or instigate disorder".