Richard Stead News, Manchester
A group of church leaders in Greater Manchester said they were saddened by the “hostility aimed at asylum seekers” living in the region’s hotels.
The Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham and the Ashley Hotel in Hale are used to house asylum seekers.
Seven churches in Altrincham and Hale said they were “stepping up again” to support the migrants, adding that their motivation “comes from the Bible”.
Nathan Evans, leader of the opposition Conservative Group on Trafford Council, suggested the church leaders were “out of touch with local communities”, adding: “It is for the politicians to sort this problem out and we are speaking up for the residents.”
Since November 2024, the Cresta Court Hotel has been used to house about 300 male asylum seekers.
When the approached a group of men outside the hotel, they said they had recently arrived in the UK from Kuwait and the Kurdish region of Turkey.
They said they did not speak good English and quickly returned inside.
Meanwhile, the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale has been used to accommodate asylum seekers since February 2023, housing a mix of families and single women.
Several protests have taken place outside the Cresta Court Hotel in recent months, attracting a large police presence.
Emily Lawrence, 20, who lives nearby, said: “I can hear the screaming and the chanting from my bedroom, so I don’t like leaving my house during the protests.”
Frank McWilliams said: “The only problems I ever see is when the protests are taking place and the traffic is all messed up.”
The 72-year-old added: “The two sides are chucking verbal abuse at each other, meanwhile the lads inside the hotel are looking out of the windows laughing.”
According to analysis of Home Office figures by the Migration Observatory, an independent research centre at University of Oxford, in the first quarter of 2025 there were about 32,000 asylum seekers living in hotels across the UK.
According to Home Office figures, there were 345 asylum seekers living in hotels in Trafford at the end of June 2025. Twelve months previously there were 65.
John Seal, a 42-year-old who works in Altrincham, said: “My concern is that the people here are all men and there’s the uncertainty about who these people are.”
The issue of hotels being used to house asylum seekers will be debated by councillors at an extraordinary meeting of Trafford Council next week.
