North Wales: Aberconwy asylum hotel to welcome leisure guests

A luxury north Wales hotel which has been used to house asylum seekers for the past two months will reopen as a holiday destination in early February.

The Home Office used the rural hotel to ease pressures at overcrowded detention centres in Kent.

On social media, the hotel said it would "welcome guests back" from 6 February.

The Home Office which is responsible for accommodating asylum seekers said the use of hotels was "unacceptable".

In November, the hotel's operators said it was being used by the Home Office which prompted angry responses from politicians in Aberconwy, with Conservative MP Robin Millar saying it was "isolated and unsupported by the appropriate services".

On its social media account, the hotel, which the BBC is not naming for safeguarding reasons, said "we're excited to get started on a new chapter".

"Thank you for your endless support, we're really excited to welcome you back again soon."

On social media, Mr Millar said: "This will come as a big relief to many here in Aberconwy.

"I want to thank residents in particular for their patience and understanding.

"The public services, the school, Conwy council, the health board and local GPs and the police have all done a terrific job - much of it quietly behind the scenes - to make sure the asylum seekers were cared for while they were with us.

"It's been a difficult and unsettling few weeks, but everyone has played their part."

In a statement, Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative MS for Aberconwy was still critical of the Home Office.

"We learnt through rumour that the asylum seekers were arriving... and now we learn through rumour that they are going.

"It is clear that there remains a real need for the Home Office's communication to improve.

"I hope that the asylum seekers who were placed in this most inappropriate of locations have now had their applications processed."

The Welsh Refugee Council said: "Housing asylum seekers in hotels, in areas with little service provision available to them, is not an ideal situation.

"The broader problem is that the Home Office backlog is stopping asylum cases being assessed quickly, and is therefore creating a delay on properties being freed up."

It added people were waiting too long in the system and the Home Office "urgently" needed to speed up assessing cases.

The Home Office said the use of hotels was temporary solution and that it was taking immediate action to bring the asylum backlog down.

A Home Office said: "The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.

"The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable - there are currently more than 45,500 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6m a day."

They said they work with local authorities whenever sites are used as asylum accommodation to make sure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people.