‘I don’t know why they’ve picked this area’: The Wolverhampton residents worried about Bibby Stockholm migrants

Foreign nationals from the barge are to be relocated to a hotel in Wolverhampton – but the news has been met with a resounding ‘Why here?’

The hotel at the end of Andrew’s street has long been a source of local tension. For years, it was just a basic chain next to a main road in suburban Wolverhampton. The sort of place with a function room for holding receptions, bedrooms that would do for a night if you were in the city on business and a dining room where you could get a cheap afternoon tea.
Rumours that it was to be bulldozed and replaced with a supermarket were met with groans from residents who failed to see the need for yet another Asda or Tesco in the area. “The original uproar about another supermarket was swiftly taken over,” says Andrew, 53. “Everyone has been looking back and thinking they would have much preferred the Lidl.” Why? Four years ago, it was turned into a migrant hotel.
Since the building began housing families from across the world, the community has gelled perfectly well with its new neighbours. “I don’t mind who comes to Great Britain as long as they’re willing to work and they’re willing to be respectful to the people here,” says Michelle Taylor Davies, who lives nearby. “At the hotel we’ve had people from Ukraine and we were collecting clothes for them because they come with nothing. I have no problem with them at all.”
For some time, the hotel seemed to those living locally to be packed with people. “Then suddenly there were none,” says one resident, who asked not to be named. “Now we’re suddenly getting various people there again.”
In recent weeks, he says, it has begun filling up again. This time around, the occupants seem to have changed.
“It was quite nice to see children going to school with uniforms,” says Andrew, who did not want his surname used. “I suppose we’ve done something good by giving the kids a chance. But the demographic has changed a little bit now. It seems to be a lot of young men without small children.”
The issue of housing tens of thousands of migrants in hotels across Britain plagued the previous government, leading Rishi Sunak to pledge that the scheme would be wound down. At its peak, there were some 58,000 migrants living in more than 400 hotels at a cost in excess of £8 million a day, sparking tensions among communities and complaints from local MPs on behalf of constituents in many cases. Last year, a poll found that 43 per cent of the population believed the Government should not be putting up refugees and asylum seekers in hotels, rising to 72 per cent for Tory leavers.
People in Wolverhampton were blindsided this week by news that migrants from Bibby Stockholm are to be transferred there. Some 400 foreign nationals will be relocated around the country from the barge, which sits partially deserted in Portland, Dorset, as the Government aims to shut it down by Christmas. It was understood some would be moved to a hotel in Wolverhampton, while others would be taken to Worksop in Nottinghamshire. Campaigners helping the asylum seekers had also seen them sent to Bristol and Cardiff, according to reports by the BBC.
The Home Office contract that allows the Government to use Bibby Stockholm for migrant housing will end in January 2025. A further 500 single, male migrants who are currently living at Wethersfield, a former RAF airfield in Essex, will also eventually need to be rehoused for Labour to meet their pledge to close large-scale migrant accommodation. Where they will go remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, data published last week shows the number of migrant crossings so far in 2024 has now surpassed 30,000, more than the 2023 total for the whole year.
The relocation of a number of Bibby Stockholm migrants to accommodation around the country has sparked backlash. Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who hails from Wolverhampton, said illegal migration is not “a political football”.
“It’s a national security emergency and a source of real anger for millions of Britons. Rather than playing politics by sending migrants to punish their opponents, Labour should get on with stopping the boats by strengthening – not scrapping – the Rwanda scheme,” he added.
In Wolverhampton, the news was met with a resounding feeling of “Why here?” 
“I can’t for the life of me understand why they send them here,” says Sue, strolling through the city centre with her friend Alison, a stone’s throw from another hotel being used to relocate migrants. “I don’t know why they think they’ve got the facilities to look after them.”
“We’re not exactly an affluent area,” adds Alison.The pair were “not very happy” after reading this week that more migrants will be coming to Wolverhampton hotels. “At the end of the day, they’ve taken the heating allowance off the pensioners and they’ve got to fork out all that money for them to live here? It’s appalling,” says Sue.
The idea of more people arriving from Bibby Stockholm, which housed only single men, is concerning, they say. “If it was families, it’d be a different story. But it seems to be all single men which is quite threatening in itself.”
For many, the idea of people being given accommodation in a city with a significant housing shortage does not land well. “My daughter and other people I know, they’re struggling to find homes,” says Tracie Sargeant, 55, a care assistant.
“I know that they’re struggling as well, so I’m torn. I do feel sorry for people. I do feel sorry for them living on the barge. But then again, then they go and get a hotel. My daughter is struggling and she’s living with me with two children… She is saying she can’t get a house for three years, but then these people are going to go into hotels and then they’ll get rehoused.”
The waiting list for social housing in Wolverhampton has increased by 62 per cent over the past two years. According to a freedom of information request carried out by local paper BirminghamLive, it rose from 3,909 in 2022 to 6,344 this year.
“A lot of people around here need housing,” says Neil Robinson, 73. “They haven’t sorted them out, but they’re going to bring in more and they’re straight in somewhere.”
“I don’t know why they’ve picked this area,” says his wife, Lin Sidaway, who also says she is “worried” about the potential influx of men.
Amanda Flanagan, 69, lives near one of the hotels and is less concerned about the occupants’ demographic, though she knows others feel differently. “I don’t have a problem with the migrants. I think everyone has the right to safety… But the only intimidating thing is it’s generally a large percentage of young men. I’ve seen it myself at the top of the road here. I don’t feel threatened. They don’t cause me any problems. But I think the issue for most people is the fact that it’s mainly men.”
It is not known how many migrants will be sent to Wolverhampton, but Andy, who asked for his surname not to be used, finds the prospect of more people being housed there “incomprehensible”. “That’s shocked me. Why Wolverhampton of all places?” he questions. “It’s stressed enough – it’s not the best of areas to do it. It’s got its problems, it’s got its unemployment problems.”
Simon Bennett, the opposition leader of Wolverhampton council, says the city simply “hasn’t got the capacity”. “We were under the impression that these [hotels] were going to be closed down, that people would be decanted out of these into more suitable accommodation outside Wolverhampton.
“Wolverhampton has housing pressures as it is… We haven’t got the capacity for our own residents at the moment. It’s not appropriate.”
The Home Office may be “picking up the cost”, he says, but “this isn’t a long-term solution”. “There was a resource – the Bibby Stockholm – that was being utilised.
“It’s all well and good for the Government to say this is happening, we’re closing the Bibby Stockholm, we’re going to put them in places like Wolverhampton. It’s not the case that you can just dump them and leave it to local councils.”
A Home Office spokesman says the Government “inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims processed”.
“We have taken immediate action to restart asylum processing which will save an estimated £7 billion for the taxpayer over the next 10 years, and are delivering a major uplift in returns to remove people with no right to be in the UK. Over the long term, this will reduce our reliance on hotels and the costs of accommodation.
“We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers and continue to identify a range of accommodation options to minimise their use.”
For Andrew, who has lived near one of the hotels for 22 years, it’s difficult to square the idea of migrant hotels with local residents he knows are struggling to find housing. “I know people here who have hit a few hard times and haven’t got the facility locally to get any assistance,” he says. “I think it’s a bit peculiar that we can all of a sudden miraculously find a few spaces here, a few spaces there.”