Bosses of a luxury spa hotel that will be used to house asylum seekers have been branded “faceless money-grabbers” after axing 95 staff.
The owners will now close Stradey Park Hotel and make the 50 full-time and 45 part-time staff redundant.
The loss of the four-star hotel, which is a popular wedding venue in Llanelli, west Wales, is considered a major blow for the town’s tourism ambitions.
There is also anger at the lack of information from the Home Office, the hotel owners and housing contractor Clearsprings.
Dame Nia Griffith, the Labour MP for Llanelli, said: “It is absolutely shocking the way that the staff have been treated from the beginning, just kept in the dark with no information. It is a disgraceful and degrading way to treat the workers.
“The hotel owners, Clearsprings and Tory ministers in the Home Office should hang their heads in shame.”
Following weeks of speculation, workers were told on Tuesday that weddings and all events after July 10 have been cancelled and it will be the staff’s last day.
Lee Waters, Llanelli’s Labour member of the Welsh Parliament, said: “Faceless money-grabbing owners are sacrificing staff who have kept the business running through really testing times. At every stage the Home Office is mishandling this.”
According to the Home Office, there are now “more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6million a day”.
A spokesman said: “We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable.”
A spokesman for the Refugee Council said: “Hotels are not the right places for men, women and children fleeing unimaginable terror. It’s not right for them, and it’s not right for communities.
“Instead the Government should reduce the backlog of cases, remove the need for hotels and introduce safe routes so that Britain can do what most Sunday Express readers want, and provide safety without the need for people to take dangerous Channel crossings.”
