The paper distorts reality and fuels resentment of hungry asylum seekers
In the alternative universe curated by the right-wing press, Britain is being far too compassionate in its response to the Calais ‘migrant crisis’.
Today’s Mail on Sunday shrieks that hundreds of ‘stowaway’ migrants are being put up in hotels at taxpayers’ expense, receiving hot meals in luxury accommodation.
However, this claim is grossly misleading, as the story itself eventually reveals.
“Hundreds of migrants who have smuggled themselves into Britain from Calais are being put up in hotels at taxpayers’ expense.”
It claims illegal ‘stowaways’ are being given ‘their own hotel room, three cooked meals a day and a cash allowance of £35 a week – all within days of entering the UK’, at hotels with gyms, spas and swimming pools.
But around half way through the story, the word ‘migrants’ is suddenly replaced by ‘asylum seekers’.
So what’s going on here? Writer Jon Danzig has put it succinctly:
“100 asylum seekers (not hundreds of migrants) are being temporarily put up in hotels by private contractor Serco ‘at no extra cost to taxpayers‘ because their immigration centres are currently full.”
This is based on information in the Mail’s own story:
“Serco said last night that it was housing 100 asylum seekers in hotels but insisted it did not cost taxpayers extra as the money comes out of the general funds it receives from the Home Office.”
Comparing these facts with the story’s opening claims, this is very shady work from the Mail.
Technically, asylum seekers are also migrants. But the terms have different legal and political meanings, as the Mail well knows. It uses ‘migrants’ on purpose to fudge the difference.
Again, technically the people in question are in hotels ‘at taxpayers’ expense’ – but using money already given to Serco, not extra funds from the UK budget.
As for exaggerating the numbers from Seco’s 100 (not in quotes, interestingly) to ‘hundreds’, and leaving the temporary and emergency nature of what is really happening till later in the story, this is grossly misleading.
Readers might conclude this story is representative of the UK’s response to the migrant crisis, rather than a novel exception.
The context is important. All week the Daily Mail has been calling on the government to get tough and ‘send in the army’, as if people fleeing Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea haven’t faced enough violence yet.
Yesterday the paper’s front page scoffed at prime minister David Cameron’s sending sniffer dogs and building a fence in Calais, under the headline ‘How feeble’.
Today’s Mail on Sunday does accidentally raise questions about how well private companies like Serco are running detention centres, and whether more money should be spent on ‘processing’ migrants and asylum seekers.
But it seems they’d rather distort reality and fuel resentment about tired, frightened, desperate people having a hot sandwich and somewhere to sleep.
***
As an antidote to stories like this, MediaWatch recommends this piece by Fleet Street Fox in the Mirror and this report from Calais by the Observer’s Nick Cohen.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
Read more:
Rod Liddle says send migrants back to Syria in the Sun’s shameful Calais coverage
Daily Mail’s 5 step guide to demonising migrants
Sign up for our weekly email by clicking here.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
45 Responses to “Mail on Sunday’s shady ‘Calais migrants in hotels’ story is willfully misleading”
Rowdie111
Well these asylum seekers are being put up in hotels or they are not. And if they are then someone must be footing the cost…one presumes they are not paying for ti themselves…….lets bring them all in ?
Pamela
Why do some in the UK, hate their own UK countrymen? To call UK citizens “anti-immigrant” really means, they are Pro-UK citizen.
Dai
There is hyperbole in the Mail story, but how is something paid for from tax revenues only ‘technically’ funded by tax payers (even if already part of the Serco contract)? Did Adam never hear of the concept of opportunity cost? His ‘correction’ involves just as much obfuscation as the Mail story. What some need to appreciate is that there are plenty of people from the centre left who oppose open borders.
Boney N
Hotels Known To Be Used By Serco And S4C For Housing Illegal Immigrants Falsifying As Asylum Seekers
Southern England
Coniston Hotel, Sittingbourne, Kent – planned to be used 2002, local objections so use cancelled
The Roundhouse Hotel, Bournemouth, Dorset (Britannia Hotels) – 2014
Heathlands Hotel, Bournemouth. Dorset (Britannia Hotels) – 2014
Queens Hotel, Church Road, South London – 2014
Grand Burstin Hotel, Folkestone, Kent – 2014
Midlands
Ramada Birmingham Oldbury, Birmingham – 2014
Northern England
Amblehurst Hotel, Sale, Manchester – 2013
Daresbury Park Hotel, Daresbury, Warrington, Cheshire – 2014
Ramada Encore, Barnsley, South Yorkshire – 2014
Holiday Inn, Barnsley, South Yorkshire – 2014
Britannia Hotel, Wigan, Cheshire (Britannia Hotels) aka ‘Another Sangatte’ – 2015
Best Western Park Hall Hotel, Charnock Richard, Preston, Lancashire – 2015
r jones
Pamela, you really need to learn the difference between hating your countrymen and disagreeing with them.
Similarly, being “pro-your country” doesn’t mean you must also be “anti-immigrant”. Your logic is deeply flawed and a product of your own fear and wilful ignorance.
Perhaps you should consider why so many people are fleeing this area of the middle east? Did you know that Syria absorbed a FIFTEENTH of their total population in Iraqi refugees as a result of George W.Bush and Tony Blair’s foolhardy military antics? That’s the equivalent of 20 MILLION refugees arriving in the US or 4 MILLION refugees arriving in the UK.
What sort of life do you think these refugees were living in Syria? Do you think this additional pressure contributed to the destabilisation and collapse of Syria into civil war?
Perhaps, like many US and UK citizens you “supported the troops” and stood by while hundreds of thousands of people were maimed and killed by our military force in Iraq.
The problem is, military action like this has long term consequences. We will ALL have to live with these consequences, be they mass immigration or terrorism. We broke it. We own it.