‘It’s an ugly word but Braverman was right people DO feel invaded’

Suella Braverman said there was an ‘invasion on our southern coast’ (Image: GETTY)I’m certainly not going to defend Suella Braverman, she could have used a better phrase, and at worse, her words could be used as tinder in what is already a heated situation, but let’s not pretend Braverman’s speech did not resonate with the public at large.Here in Conwy Valley, in the shadow of Snowdonia, a hundred all male migrants were secretly coached-in from a Kent asylum processing centre last week, unknown to the local community, the Council or the Member of Parliament. The migrants have been billeted in the luxury Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, Dolgarrog. The spa hotel is on the site of Adventure Parc Snowdonia, the home of the first artificial surf wave in the UK.The Home Office said this is only temporary — at least three months, but it’s unknown if the migrants’ stay will be extended. The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel and Adventure Parc Snowdonia have received millions of taxpayers’ money to establish what should be a tourist honey trap.Instead of offering jobs, the local staff were let go by the hotel. The site has been closed for all hospitality, and those who had weddings booked there have had them cancelled.The Home Office has transferred 100 males to a rural village with a population of just 450, without consultation with the local community or authorities. Dolgarrog is far from being an urban area. The village is accessed only by a fast and not very pedestrian-friendly road serviced by one small, infrequent bus.This has left the council, the local NHS, the police, and politicians scrambling to work out how to divert resources and funds to cater for the potentially vulnerable adults in a rural community. While simultaneously dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and a squeeze on public finances.The villagers of Dolgarrog have several safety concerns, particularly about the children who attend the local Primary School, Ysgol Dyffryn yr Enfys. The Mums and Dads I’ve spoken to have expressed their apprehension about so many all-male migrants living next door to the school. The truth is that we don’t know who these men are. There are no checks; in most cases, you cannot verify who they say they are, as the people smugglers tell the migrants to throw any identification away before crossing the Channel.Before the Twitterati tell us that we are just a bunch of racists up in the Conwy Valley, whilst there has been concern and outrage over the Home Office’s actions, the villagers have pulled together to offer donations of food and clothes. They plan to hold coffee mornings to build dialogue with the new hotel tenants.It’s not about race. It could have been 100 blokes from Newcastle or Glasgow, and you would have the same outcome. Simply, it’s the fact that the Office has housed 100 men in an inappropriate location with few resources. The local authorities were kept in the dark, and the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel staff were not told until the migrants turned up.What is happening in North Wales is not a one-off; it’s happening all over the country. The Home Office hired a company called Clearsprings to run an operation to find hundreds of hotels to accommodate the migrants whilst their asylum applications are reviewed.Once the migrants have arrived at the hotels, the BBC are censoring the names of the sites. They say it’s to protect the migrants, but surely it is in the public interest for the local communities to be informed. Do the BBC think they can keep the locations secret in the age of social media?Even before the latest round of billeting, the Home Office was housing 37,000 migrants in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £2 billion a year. Both sums will increase over the next few weeks.It is unknown what Clearsprings’ criteria was when they chose Dolgarrog, but with the massive increase of Channel migrants, the small Welsh village is certainly not alone. This is happening up and down the country without the knowledge of councils, service providers, MPs, or the local communities.The Home Office’s secret hotel policy has left councils unprepared and left to pick up the bill, with local communities feeling like they have been invaded. Suella Braverman’s words may resonate with people, but her actions don’t.Nic Conner is Senior Research Fellow at the Bow Group and is a former Tory Party and Vote Leave staffer.