In Spring 2024, we organised a local campaign to resist the closure of the National Hotel, where people seeking asylum had been placed by the Home Office accommodation provider, Clearsprings Ready Homes. The closure was an unnecessary and traumatising displacement for hotel residents who had been welcomed and were established in the local community. This campaign was a collective effort together with other community groups to stand in solidarity with the hotel residents, also giving them an opportunity to take action and join the campaign. Our work was intersectional, pulling in other networked groups locally (including Haringey Migrant Justice Coalition members, XR, Unite Union, Haringey Community Action Network), creating a broader and more diverse front, which helped to raise awareness in the local community. One resident spoke anonymously to the media about his experience, which resulted in a powerful article published in the Metro reaching a wider audience across London.
This collective effort, which included a lot of legal triage work by Haringey Migrant Support Centre supporting the residents before their move, and involvement of the local MP and the council, resulted in most residents staying within London and closer to each other, instead of being scattered around the country.