Asylum seekers loitering outside school is ‘cultural’ issue, say police

Residents of Deanshanger in Northamptonshire have raised concerns about behaviour of migrants living in a hotel near primary school

Police have told migrants to adhere to “cultural expectations” following reports they were loitering outside a primary school.

Northamptonshire Police said it would “deliver some work” around “appropriate behaviours” following complaints of men “hanging around” near the school.

The force pledged to work with a hotel housing asylum seekers and step up patrols after the reports of “suspicious activity” in the village of Deanshanger.

Migrants have been staying in a hotel outside the village for around three years and are among thousands living in temporary accommodation across the country.

However, in recent months there has been increasing concern over young men loitering near Deanshanger Primary School, including claims of filming.

No risk identified by police

Following concerns, Sgt Lorna Clarke from the neighbourhood policing team issued an update to residents in which she confirmed the force had received “several calls” from people “concerned about males hanging around the primary school at drop-off and pick-up”.

She said that there had been several posts on social media and WhatsApp and that she had personally spoken to those concerned and the school.

Sgt Clarke said that after speaking to people directly and having her officers “attend the hotel”, they had not identified a risk to anyone and “there is no evidence to support that any offences had taken place”.

She added: “While I fully appreciate the community’s concerns, I ask that people don’t take this matter into their own hands, but continue to speak to the police about any incidents they witness or any concerns they have. We are well linked in with the hotel and can deliver some work there around appropriate behaviours and different cultural expectations.”

In a letter to parents last month, the school said it had been made aware of “some men hanging around outside the school during drop-off and pick-up times” and it was “taking this matter seriously”.

The hotel where the asylum seekers are staying is separated from the school’s playing fields by a large field.

The school said it had contacted police and urged parents to be “extra vigilant” and “as an added precaution, we will be keeping children away from the back of the field for the time being”.

‘It’s a safeguarding issue’

Speaking outside the school this week, some parents said they had been so concerned they temporarily pulled their children out of school.

One 29-year-old mother of four, who asked not to be named, said she feared the men may come onto the school’s playing fields.

She also claimed that “every day since September [the men have] been stood outside filming”.

She said that since the reports had come in, police had been seen regularly outside the school.

Her 32-year-old husband added: “It’s a safeguarding issue.”

A 70-year-old man said he had seen men from the hotel sitting in the park opposite the primary school during school hours, but they would be gone when children were picked up.

Other residents in the village, which has a population of 4,000, claimed that those living in the hotel had left litter on the green.

“The green is supposed to be the most important part of this area, but when they come back from the shop they leave their rubbish here,” a 64-year-old woman said.

“When I take my dogs down to the pocket park down the road I don’t always feel safe. I have stopped doing walks there as a result. I go to the other park instead after my children told me to stop going because of the men.

“I was nervous. It’s not nice to not trust them, but when there are a couple of men hanging around, and I’m just alone, it’s not safe. I just don’t do that walk any more.”

The Telegraph spoke to three of the men who live in the hotel who were in the village on Friday.

Two of the men, aged 23 and 29, said they were from Eritrea while a 24-year-old said he was from Tunisia and that they had been staying at the hotel for four months.

Dressed in a black coat, the 24-year-old said he wanted to live in Britain “because it was safe”.

Northamptonshire Police said there had been “community rumours” in relation to filming of pupils but it had not been confirmed.

In a statement last month, the force said: “We are aware of the concerns reported by people about alleged suspicious activity in Deanshanger in recent days. Having followed all reasonable lines of inquiry for every report, we can confirm that we have not identified any offences, increased risk or safeguarding issues at the present time.

“No one has been identified to or by the force as having committed any offences, and so no one has been questioned. We have had no evidence of any crimes submitted to us, or any verified first-person reports. All reports received at present have been assessed to be third-party reports, primarily based on social media posts and not by people who live in the village.

The Telegraph: continue reading

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