Only 17 of the 21 original asylum seekers remain at the Rose and Crown Hotel, Wisbech, according to Wisbech Conservatives.
In a newsletter to residents the Conservative group says the other four “have moved to live with relatives in other districts”.
The newsletter – put out to support Conservative candidates for this May’s local election – sets out some of the background to how Serco won a contract to house asylum seekers at the hotel.
“You may seen in the newspapers and online that there are asylum seekers in the Rose and Crown,” says the newsletter.
“Sadly Fenland District lost the case against the Government on this issue which we were very disappointed about.
“We know other councils had lost but we felt we had a number of material differences to our argument than theirs.
“Sadly, the judge did not agree.
“Whilst this was a sad outcome, more positively we know that there are 17 residents currently in the hotel and it doesn’t have a capacity for a large amount more (there were 21 but four have moved to live with relatives in other districts).”
A softening of tone by the Conservatives – now choosing to describe the hotel occupants as residents and not as economic migrants – contrasts with speeches by Fenland Conservative county councillors.
During a county council debate in December, Cllr Steve Tierney, described what he summarised as three types of people who are coming to this country.
“There are those that have come here to become part of the country to live here,” he said.
“They have come legally through legal channels; they’re doing their best to integrate.
“They’ve got jobs they’re working they’re part of the community.
The majority of people are just like that; great, love them they’re working well.”
He said: “There’s a second group of people who are coming because they are fleeing from countries where it’s horrible where they have faced things that we can’t even imagine and they’re coming here to escape that and again of course we should support those people.
“But there are a third group that seems to be conflated with the other two that are not the same.
“These are people who are coming here illegally and they’re coming here for economic reasons often through multiple countries where they could perfectly possibly stop and then coming illegally into our country.
“Now unless you think that there are unlimited infinite resources there must be a limit to that.
“Denying it is just lying.”
Cllr Tierney added: “I work on a Saturday night with a group who feed the homeless, feed people who are having a hard time meeting their bills and getting food.
“And to a man and to a lady they arrive, and they say, they often say, we’re very frustrated because we can’t get what we need, and we have to do this.
“And over there in our local hotel there are people being put up in the lap of luxury being given everything thrown at them and they’re not wrong.
It’s not fair it’s not reasonable.
And people in this country have had enough of it.”
Cllr Steve Count said: “We have a system that embraces looking after people that come from war-torn countries and I respect, and I appreciate that.
“We should not have a system that just lets everybody turn up and undermines the actual living of the people that are living here and that is what worries me.”
Cllr Sam Hoy said: “The system is totally broken nationally.
“We have people from Lithuania right now they’ve got no recourse to public funds that are sleeping on the streets and people that came across the channel are in 4-star hotels and I’m sorry that’s just fundamentally wrong.”
