Boulders have been mysteriously dumped across the entrance to a hotel due to house hundreds of asylum seekers. A local group opposing the asylum plans for the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, said it was not responsible.
A spokesperson for the Furnace Action Committee said it hoped the five boulders would highlight opposition to the plan, but it had not condoned or put them there. Carmarthenshire Council has also said it had nothing to do with the rocks, which were first seen by hotel staff on June 6.
The Furnace Action Committee said opponents are concerned that the hotel is the wrong place for traumatised asylum seekers and would put pressure on local services. It denied the campaign was fuelled by racism.
Read more: Asylum seekers 'bored' by living in 'jail-like' hotels as Government looks to change system
A spokesperson for the committee said : “We don’t know who put the boulders here, but it highlights the issue. It is not clear who has ordered the block stone barrier and there is widespread local speculation that the access gap could be sealed off at any stage.”
He described the plan to house asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel as “a barmy, half-baked scheme which will damage the community of Furnace and Llanelli and one which is not in the best interests of asylum seekers”. The union Unison has also opposed the plans.
Mark Evans, Unison branch secretary for Carmarthenshire County, said: “The rushed and secretive home office plan to house 207 asylum seekers in Stradey Park Hotel’s 77 rooms by July the 3rd without consultation with the local community and with Carmarthenshire County Council and Hywel Dda Health board and other public bodies only receiving the plans at the last minute has inevitably resulted in opposition to the plans not just by the community but by the council.
“Carmarthenshire County Council has accepted asylum seekers and their policy has been to locate them across the wider community in Carmarthenshire. Putting up to 207 asylum seekers in a hotel in Furnace, Llanelli will put significant pressure on council and health services locally that have been cut to the bone and underfunded for many years due to Tory cuts passed on by a Labour Welsh Government and administered by Plaid and Labour led Carmarthenshire County Council."
The Home Office has previously confirmed asylum seekers will be housed in the hotel from July 3. Carmarthenshire Council has said that up to 207 people, made up of families, will be accommodated in 77 rooms.
The hotel, Carmarthenshire Council and the Home Office were contacted for comment.
Read next:
- The school pupils who were shot at, beaten by traffickers, forced to walk across the desert, crammed into sweltering lorries and rescued from sinking dinghies to make a life in Wales
- The extraordinary row over the Welsh Government giving £1,600 a month to some young asylum seekers in Wales
- Asylum seekers left in limbo as law firms are forced to drop cases due to Home Office delays
- Community unites to support asylum seekers amid plan to house 300 at hotel
- Asylum seeker threatened to burn himself alive in Swansea bedsit
