Life inside Britain’s ‘poshest’ migrant hotel: Asylum seekers enjoy breakfast buffet, four-poster beds, video games and alcohol

Footage purportedly filmed inside a migrant hotel has revealed a luxurious set-up including four-poster beds, a buffet-style canteen and rooms containing video consoles and jewellery. 

The video, reportedly filmed inside a hotel in West Sussex that is housing hundreds of asylum seekers, also showed piles of empty lager cans and evidence of drug consumption. 

Aston Knight, who claims to have worked in the hotel as a contractor, said he shot the footage between October and December 2024. 

He is seen going from room to room with a camera commenting on what he finds.  

In one room, he reveals what appears to be cannabis, alongside gold jewellery and gadgets including a PlayStation 5s and Apple computers.

In the canteen, staff are seen serving breakfast to residents from food warmers containing beans, hash browns, cooked tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs. One resident has 10 eggs on his plate. 

The video was reportedly filmed inside a hotel in West Sussex that is housing hundreds of asylum seekers

In the canteen, staff are seen serving breakfast to residents from food warmers containing beans, hash browns, cooked tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs

Mr Knight also films landline phones that appear to be set to allow international calls, and men enjoying music lessons and games of cricket in the car park. 

The YouTuber, from Bedfordshire, said: ‘I was absolutely shocked at the level of luxury. It was something I didn’t expect.

‘The mainstream media made out like this was some sort of hell, but I was amazed by the level of food waste and luxury. 

‘It’s changed my opinion on migrant hotels. I used to be supportive of them.’

Social media users were outraged by the footage, although some pointed out that not all migrant hotels would be so luxurious.   

The continuing use of hotels to house asylum seekers has become a major focus of public anger, with more protests taking place outside sites across England over the weekend. 

A gold watch inside one of the rooms. Aston Knight said he worked at the hotel as a contractor 

Currently, 32,000 asylum seekers are housed in hotels at a cost of £3 billion per year

An ashtray inside one of the rooms alongside what appears to be cannabis 

The recent string of flare-ups began with a demonstration outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, after Ethiopian man Hadush Kebatu was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl just days after he arrived in Britain in a Channel dinghy.

Currently, 32,000 asylum seekers are housed in hotels at a cost of £3 billion per year.

Ministers have vowed to end their use by the next election, but critics are sceptical. 

On Friday, the Home Office said asylum seekers face being made homeless if they refuse orders by officials to move out of hotels into alternative accommodation.

Around 100 asylum seekers refuse to move accommodation each week, and ministers currently have no powers to force them.

Under the Conservatives, the Government threatened to remove housing and support from those who refused to move to the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is no longer in use.

Migrant hotels have been the focus of public anger. Pictured are protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping on Sunday

Migrants run towards a smuggler’s dinghy off the beach of Gravelines, northern France, this morning 

Labour’s new plan will mirror the Tory rules, but will be applied more widely to other forms of accommodation.

The ‘firm but fair’ policy is part of the Government’s drive to end the use of expensive hotels to house asylum seekers.

It comes as two more men were charged with violent disorder following a protest outside The Bell Hotel in Epping. 

Phillip Curson, 52, and Martin Peagram, 33, are due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Essex Police had previously sought to speak to the two in relation to the protest outside The Bell Hotel on July 17.

The protest began peacefully but escalated into what officers described as ‘scattered incidents of violence’ targeting police and property.

The force previously said a small number of people used that demonstration as cover to commit violent disorder and criminal damage.

Eight officers were injured and a number of police vehicles were damaged as missiles were thrown.

MailOnline has requested comment from the owners of the hotel in Mr Knight’s video.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘In the last financial year, the cost of asylum hotels was cut by almost a billion pounds, and we are determined to end their use entirely by the end of this Parliament, down from the peak reached under the last government, when 400 hotels were in use at a cost of almost £9 million per day.’