So when local communities allege crime rates go up when asylum hotels are opened, or raise fears about the hotels being full of only single adult males, it is often impossible to prove the point either way.
There were 35 sexual and violent offences reported in Epping town in May. In the same month, the year before, when there were no asylum seekers at The Bell, 28 sexual and violent offences were reported. In May 2023, the hotel was being used by the Home Office for migrant families. The number of reported offences was 32.
But how many of these offences involved asylum seekers? The police do not publish statistics about exactly where crimes happen or who is reported to have committed them.
So in many ways, we don’t know “who they are”.
Orla believes more information would help reduce tension and is furious at the government’s handling of the asylum system.
“If you conceal the truth and you act as if you are hiding something, people are going to be angry,” she says. “If they said there are 70 in the Bell Hotel, five are from Sudan, five from somewhere else, I think most people would feel better.”
Epping Forest District Council’s Conservative Leader, Chris Whitbread recently said that “it is important to be transparent” about asylum hotel information.
In a recent report, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, criticised how the Home Office deals with asylum hotels. “It is clear that the Home Office still has a long way to go to build trust and confidence in its willingness to be open and honest about its intentions and performance,” he wrote.
The Home Office says it removed 6,000 people from hotels in early 2025 and has already closed 200 hotels. In its manifesto, Labour pledges to close them all by the next election.
On the other side of the political divide from the anti-migrant campaigners, in north London outside a meeting “to organise against the right wing”, Sabby Dhalu from the protest group Stand Up To Racism wants the government to work more closely with councils so that their residents are better informed.