A migrant wanted for child sex offences in Germany was given taxpayer-funded accommodation at a hotel in an upmarket village after claiming asylum in Britain.
Izalden Alshaik Suleman – understood to be a convicted paedophile – was arrested last month at the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale, Greater Manchester.
But the National Crime Agency, which detained Suleman at the request of the German authorities, has been accused of keeping the local council, police and MP ‘in the dark’, sparking a furious row.
As the 32-year-old fights extradition to Germany with the help of taxpayer-funded lawyers, the Conservatives branded the influx of foreign criminals entering Britain on small boats ‘a national emergency’.
The scandal comes amid rising fears about the UK’s porous borders, with multiple cases of asylum seekers being allowed in despite convictions for serious crimes.
Suleman was held on October 17 under a European arrest warrant and he is now in custody after appearing in court in London.
He was staying at the three-star hotel in Hale, an upmarket ‘millionaires’ row’ suburb whose residents include ex-England cricketer Andrew Flintoff, footballer-turned-pundit Roy Keane and actor and radio presenter Craig Charles.
The Britannia Ashley Hotel began accommodating asylum seekers in February 2023, prompting then local MP Sir Graham Brady to describe it as the ‘most obviously inappropriate location you could imagine’ for housing migrants.
Izalden Alshaik Suleman, 32, was detained on alleged child sex offences by the National Crime Agency on October 17 at the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale, Greater Manchester (pictured) where he was staying at taxpayers’ expense after the German authorities issued a European arrest warrant
After an intervention from then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, assurances were given that at least 80 per cent of residents would be families rather than single men.
But despite local protests, a second nearby hotel – the former Best Western Cresta Court in Altrincham – was last year also turned into migrant accommodation, housing around 300 recent small boat arrivals.
Details of Suleman’s secret arrest sparked fury, with local Labour MP Connor Rand saying he was ‘deeply concerned’ and demanding answers from the NCA.
‘While I am grateful to the NCA for their work to apprehend a clearly dangerous individual, I share the anger of residents that we were kept in the dark about such a serious incident,’ he said.
‘Local police, politicians and residents should have been told about this arrest and why it had taken place.
‘The individual who has been arrested should never have been allowed into the country.
‘I understand they now face extradition, and I will be writing to the Home Office to request they are deported as soon as possible.’
Mr Rand – who won the seat after Sir Graham entered the House of Lords – added that ministers had ‘promised’ him that asylum seekers would be moved out of both hotels.
Hundreds of asylum seekers are also being housed at the Cresta Court Hotel in nearby Altrincham
But the Conservatives have demanded answers, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp saying: ‘It should never have been possible for anyone with serious convictions abroad to claim asylum here.’
Now local Tory activists have demanded that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood shuts both asylum hotels immediately.
In a letter to Ms Mahmood, Trafford Conservative leader Councillor Nathan Evans said the presence of a suspected sex offender in Hale had caused ‘significant alarm’.
‘The lack of communication and transparency raises serious questions about how this individual came to be accommodated at the Ashley Hotel, who authorised or arranged their stay, and why local authorities were seemingly excluded from any oversight or notification process,’ he wrote.
‘This situation casts serious doubt over the level of vetting – if any – being conducted in relation to individuals being placed within our communities, especially when such accommodation sites are adjacent to schools and other locations frequented by families and children.
‘The absence of clear safeguarding and communication processes undermines public confidence and raises legitimate questions about the effectiveness of current Home Office protocols.’
Last month Channel migrant Fayaz Khan – who has convictions for offences including knife possession, minor bodily harm, threatening behaviour and vandalism in Sweden – was jailed for five years for threatening to kill Nigel Farage.
Meanwhile the Daily Mail revealed how an asylum seeker’s terrorism conviction was missed – leaving him free to rape a woman in London’s Hyde Park.
Ethiopian migrant Hadush Kebatu (pictured) was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford just four weeks after being sentenced for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping while being housed at an asylum seeker hotel
Egyptian Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela was found guilty of being part of a bomb-making cell in his home country and given a seven-year jail sentence in 2015.
Instead in 2023 he came to Britain in the back of a lorry, claimed asylum and was housed in a taxpayer-funded Hilton hotel while his application was considered, only to attack the vulnerable woman last November.
A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: ‘While we support the efforts of the NCA, we also share the frustrations of our residents in not being told about the arrest.
‘Greater Manchester Police has reassured us they will raise the matter with their colleagues in the NCA so it doesn’t happen again.’
The NCA was approached for comment.
The Home Office said: ‘When foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them.
‘This government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14% increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.’
