EXCLUSIVE: Asylum seeker is now living in £241 a night four-star hotel
EXCLUSIVE: Asylum seeker who chronicled his journey from France to UK on TikTok is now living in ‘ultra chic, sophisticated’ four-star hotel with the ‘cosiest beds in London’ where rooms cost £241 a night and taxpayers are footing the bill
- Rooms in the Atrium hotel at Heathrow have been taken over to house migrants
- A TikTok video showed asylum seeker Rahat Popal reclining on a bed in the hotel
An asylum seeker who chronicled his journey from France to England in videos on TikTok is now living in an ‘ultra chic’ and ‘sophisticated’ hotel at Heathrow, MailOnline can reveal.
The migrant named on the social media platform as Rahat Popal posted film clips showing him taking a train through France and sailing across the Channel in an overcrowded dinghy.
Later videos on TikTok showed him being picked up by a UK lifeboat crew before being taken ashore in Dover, and finally relaxing on a bed in a hotel funded by British taxpayers.
The luxury hotel which is now home to Popal and at least one of his friends is not identified in the video clip.
Asylum seeker Rahat Popal is now living in an ‘ultra chic’ and ‘sophisticated’ hotel at Heathrow, MailOnline can reveal
Videos on TikTok showed Rahat Popal relaxing on a bed in a hotel funded by British taxpayers
But a MailOnline investigation has revealed that it is the luxury Atrium hotel at Heathrow where rooms reportedly used to cost around £241 a night.
The four-star hotel only opened in August 2019 opposite Hatton Cross station, Feltham, and was taken over by Home Office contractors to house migrants last summer.
Its website describes it as London’s ‘latest icon’ and ‘a brand new urban retreat offering 573 ultra chic bedrooms, delectable culinary offerings, sizeable event spaces and exquisite wellness.’
A further description on the website states: ‘Our warm, inviting hotel will serve as the perfect place to call home for however long you’re staying in London.
‘Relax in stylish accommodations, make yourself at home with an assortment of amenities and enjoy extraordinary service. Above all, enjoy the peace of mind knowing that we’ve got everything taken care of.’
The hotel also boasts on its website as having ‘the cosiest beds in all of London’, stating that lying down on one is ‘like sleeping on a cloud.’
The hotel initially targeted at business class travellers using the nearby airport but was recently exclusively taken over by the Home Office to temporarily house migrants like Mr Popal.
It’s described on booking sites as ‘a striking, contemporary hotel’ that is close to famous tourist sites like Hampton Court Palace and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The description continues: ‘Relaxed rooms feature Wi-Fi, flat-screen [TV] and minifridges, as well as tea and coffee making facilities….Amenities include an indoor pool, a sauna and a steam room. There’s also a gym.’
It’s unclear whether all the facilities are currently open to aslyum seeking residents.
Rates for individual rooms are not currently available as it has been block booked to house migrants until next April at least – but comparable hotels nearby start at £125 a night.
The hotel has its own underground leisure complex with ‘a crystal clear’ pool illuminated by underwater lights and a jacuzzi
The website brands itself London’s ‘latest icon’ and ‘offering 573 ultra chic bedrooms, delectable culinary offerings, sizeable event spaces and exquisite wellness’
The website invites guests to make themselves ‘at home with an assortment of amenities and enjoy extraordinary service’
The hotel had been rated as ‘good’ with a ranking of 7.9 on the hotels website booking.com before it started housing asylum seekers
The hotel also boasts on its website as having ‘the cosiest beds in all of London’, stating that lying down on one is ‘like sleeping on a cloud’
The Home Office is paying the bill for the entire hotel – and though the terms of this arrangement have not been made public, at market rates this would cost over £70,000 every single day – or £76 million a year.
The Home Office is understood to be using the base to hold asylum seekers before they are dispersed further afield – and a bus leaves each morning to ferry them to various residences around Britain.
The building is now guarded by security officials in stab proof jackets.
Each resident is marked out of the hotel and checked back in by security with visitors banned.
Scores of bored migrants assemble in the back yard of the hotel under the eye of guards.
Planes fly directly and noisily above as the hotel is under the landing flight path of incoming jets.
One Iranian who arrived by boat two years ago from Dunkirk and has been placed in more permanent accommodation in London’s King’s Cross waited outside to see a relative who arrived on Monday.
The new arrival told Mail Online: ‘I like England and the hotel is good. But i have no passport and no papers. I will be moved tomorrow but I don’t know to where. ‘
An official refused Mail Online access and said migrants were only housed there for a few days before being bussed out.
The video on Popal’s TikTok shows him and a friend relaxing in a well-appointed room at the hotel, and is emblazoned with emojis showing the flag of Afghanistan, a Union Jack and a smiling face with sunglasses.
The television is on in the background as one of them stretches out on the bed while scrolling through his mobile phone and giving a thumbs up gesture.
The hotel’s website states that it ‘offers bright and tasteful classic standard rooms’ which are all sound-proofed to keep out the noise of planes taking off and landing at Heathrow.
Some rooms which might appeal to plane spotters overlook Heathrow’s runway and are said to offer ‘a unique view that you’ll struggle to find anywhere else’. There are also larger rooms offering ‘all the comforts and privileges of an opulent executive room’.
The website adds: ‘Every detail of design works toward creating a sophisticated retreat. Sleep well on a comfortable, large bed and enjoy the sleek bathroom featuring a walk-in shower facility and toiletries.’
MailOnline was able to identify that the pair were at the Atrium by comparing images of the curtains, lights, mirrors and bed headboard in the video with previously published pictures of rooms at the hotel.
The hotel had been rated as ‘good’ with a ranking of 7.9 on the hotels website booking.com before it started housing asylum seekers.
Reviews on booking.com described its rooms as ‘clean, tidy and very nice’, ‘very good’ and ‘superb’ with ‘excellent staff and excellent facilities’.
The hotel has its own underground leisure complex with ‘a crystal clear’ pool illuminated by underwater lights and a jacuzzi.
Its website says there is also an ‘elegant and modern gym’ which is ‘fully equipped with high-tech cardiovascular machines including treadmills and stationary bicycles to get your heart pumping’.
MailOnline was able to identify that the pair were at the Atrium by comparing images of the curtains, lights, mirrors and bed headboard in the video
AUGUST 18: Conditions on the vessel were perilous, with some migrants perched dangerously on the edge of the craft, while others – including a woman and child – was sat in the middle of the boat
News of the videos comes as it today emerged 661 migrants on 15 boats had arrived in the UK on Monday
AUGUST 20: Popal with a friend after arriving safely in the UK via a small boat
While it is believed that asylum seekers do not have access to the leisure complex, they are free to watch television, get three meals a day and can come and go as they please.
Popal’s videos show him starting off at an unnamed location in France and travelling by high-speed train.
He films the train’s refreshments car before turning around and capturing himself, dressed in a white hoodie with a black bag and wireless earphones.
A later video shows him and two friends posing after they apparently arrive at a station, believed to be the Gard du Nord in Paris.
Another video shows him in a French field before walking along a bust road with other migrants, passing an Auchan supermarket.
The clip is believed to have been filmed in the Grand Synthe area on the outskirts of Dunkirk which has long been a staging post for migrants who live in camps while they wait to pay people smugglers for a place in a boat cross the Channel.
AUGUST 18: Conditions on the vessel were perilous, with some migrants perched dangerously on the edge of the craft, while others – including a woman and child – was sat in the middle of the boat
A man performs the Albanian eagle gesture as he arrives into Rye Harbour on an RNLI Coastguard boat on Monday
AUGUST 17: The trio are seen in the same clip walking to the coast with a large group of people who are also thought to be migrants or asylum seekers
Popal later films himself on his voyage to the UK, grinning while wearing a red lifejacket and perched precariously on a dinghy, crammed full with men, as well as women and children.
The passengers all appear to have basic life vests, although many are balanced dangerously on the edge with their feet just skimming the waves.
One of Popal’s friends smiles to the camera while another gives a thumbs up. On the floor of the rigid inflatable, a woman is pictured cradling a small child.
A cargo ship is visible in the background as the dinghy makes its progress across the Channel on a sunny day.
Another 21 second video shows Popal and is friend on the deck of what appears to be an RNLI lifeboat with emojis showing a Union Jack and a police car, suggesting they have just been rescued. A second RNLI lifeboat from Dover is visible in the same clip.
Following a small boat incident in the Channel, an RNLI lifeboat brought in the migrants
Border Force officials escort 50 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent on Tuesday
He and his friend are thought to have been taken to The Atrium last week after being processed at the migrant reception centre in Manston, Kent
Popal’s videos were all posted on TikTok five-days-ago, but his account has since been taken down.
READ MORE: TikTok Channel migrant’s journey to Britain: Asylum seeker posts series of astonishing videos which show him travelling through France, laughing with friends on a tiny dinghy then watching TV in a luxury UK hotel
It was revealed this week that 661 migrants on 15 boats had arrived in the UK on Monday – the third busiest day in 2023 – bringing the total number of arrivals this year to more than 18,000.
A further 337 arrived in five vessels – an average of 67 in each – on Sunday and 130 in three dinghies on Saturday.
Human traffickers operating on the French coast are thought to have been piling more migrants on rigid boats to make the dangerous crossing with a record 88 in a single boat over the weekend, according to sources.
The numbers crammed on dinghies are said to have swelled from around 40 at the start of the crisis to close to 70 on average now, despite the deaths of six migrants iinthe Channel earlier this month.
Traffickers are thought to have taken advantage of the recent spell of good weather to send even more across the Channel.
Many migrants are forced to straddle the side of rigid inflatable boats for hours on end as they journey from France to the UK.
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