SUE REID: How the 200,000th small-boat migrant to arrive here was relaxing in a 4-star hotel just 32 hours after landing

Published: 00:28, 14 May 2026 | Updated: 00:28, 14 May 2026 The 200,000th Channel migrant to officially reach Britain in the era of small-boat crossings is living comfortably in a four-star hotel on the leafy edge of a Hampshire commuter town. The Daily Mail has tracked the young man to the £134-a-night Crowne Plaza in Basingstoke. He arrived there on a Home Office coach on Saturday afternoon, 32 hours after reaching Dover. Since 2018, the Home Office has kept official figures on the number of asylum seekers entering the country illegally on small boats. And on Friday morning, the migrant stepped from the gangplank of a Border Force vessel on to the quayside of Dover port to become the 200,000th to do so. Some 69 other arrivals who had been on his boat checked into the Crowne Plaza with him. All hailed from African and Middle Eastern nations, including Iran - a country whose recent refugees are of deep concern to security services here, who fear terrorists loyal to the regime could be in their midst. The men each paid £1,500 for the illegal sea crossing, generating a £105,000 haul for the trafficking gangs which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to 'smash' two years ago. Carrying a blue plastic bag containing his sodden clothes from the Channel crossing and wearing a Home Office-issue charcoal grey tracksuit with open-top sandals (given to him at Dover on arrival), migrant number 200,000 entered the hotel fewer than three days after setting off from a French beach early on May 8. His rubber boat was escorted by a French Navy ancillary vessel, Ridens, towards the UK coast. Mid-Channel, he and the others were transferred to the Border Force cutter Ranger, which brought the clandestine travellers to the Kent port soon after 11am that day. From there, he was bussed 19 miles to the Manston processing camp in Kent where the Daily Mail photographed his arrival. Pictured: A group of migrants waiting to enter the £134-a-night Crowne Plaza in Basingstoke. Some 69 other arrivals checked into the four star hotel. All hailed from African and Middle Eastern nations, including Iran In September, the Government contract with the Crowne Plaza will end and it will undergo refurbishment before reopening to the public He was greeted by three female immigration officers and shown into a marquee to be given crisps, water and fresh fruit - gratis, of course. The migrants were then interviewed for the first time, each one asked for their name, age, country of origin, and the reason behind their claim for asylum in this country. From that moment, the migrants were referred to as 'residents' by Manston staff, under a bizarre and woke Home Office edict to respect their human rights. Most of the men who arrived with migrant number 200,000 did not speak English and all were offered online interpreters, chalking up another hefty bill for taxpayers. Many were quizzed for less than an hour by a team of immigration officials, despite the Government raising the national threat level to 'severe' following the anti-Semitic Golders Green attacks last month. Indeed, one of the Crowne Plaza's former migrant guests was convicted earlier this month at the Old Bailey of preparing a terror-related attack on the Israeli embassy in London. Abdullah Albadri, 34, was billeted in the hotel the day after he arrived by boat for a second time last spring. Notably, he was not picked up as a potential security threat when interviewed at the Manston camp. Barely two weeks later, the illegal migrant, who was born in Kuwait but said he was from a stateless Bedouin tribe, attempted to scale the embassy walls armed with two large knives. He told arresting police he wanted to stop the war in Gaza. A French Warship escorts an inflatable 'small boat' carrying migrants across the channel after leaving northern France on April 27, 2026 Since 2018, the Home Office has kept official figures on the number of asylum seekers entering the country illegally on small boats. And on Friday morning the 200,000th migrant crossed into the UK The group of migrants that arrived at Manston last Friday were served a hot meal after being processed and given a bed for the night at the camp. The following day, the 'residents' were served breakfast and lunch before a coach picked them up at 3pm to take them to the Basingstoke hotel, 121 miles away. We monitored them leaving Manston and their arrival in the Hampshire town soon after 5pm. Security guards stood by as the 70 disembarked from a back door of the vehicle, which was parked up close to the entrance to ensure their arrival was hidden from prying eyes. Once inside, they were handed back the clothes they had worn for the Channel crossing and shown to their rooms by Home Office staff. That evening they were given the choice of dining in the restaurant or eating a takeaway in their room (or outside on the patio in the evening sunshine). We know this because other residents of the Crowne Plaza, commandeered as a migrants' hotel five years ago, talked to us on the road outside. They had wandered back from nearby shops, through the quiet streets of the Basingstoke suburb of Eastrop. Two Afghans, one of whom had just bought a pack of new earphones, told us they had come to Britain on a boat the previous Sunday (May 3), when several hundred migrants crossed the Channel to Kent in a number of traffickers' dinghies. The duo, in their 20s, had poor English. But smiling, they said the hotel food was good and they liked England very much. Soon, they added, they expected to get a house. 'Some we have seen going from the hotel to new homes this week,' the taller Afghan said. A migrant hotel in west London. The government reportedly intends to phase out the use of migrant hotels by 2029  Two Ethiopians - Nathaniel, 30, and his friend Chekole - stopped to talk as well. Nathaniel proved to be knowledgeable about British politics. 'There are too many migrants who are not refugees being sent to Britain by the traffickers,' he said. 'I believe the Reform Party will get it right. The asylum system needs to be stopped, sorted out, and started again.' Apologising for his bad language, he said: 'The traffickers don't care a s***. They are funnelling migrants to the UK, only the UK. They push you on to the boats. They don't care if you live or die, they want the money. 'To be honest, we are worried about the number of Muslims here in the hotel, and the UK. We Christians know what they can do to us because we come from Ethiopia. 'We love England. We want to give to your country. It is not the same feeling from everyone who arrives on the boats. You need to understand that.' After first looking around to check that no one was watching (most of the boat migrants in UK hotels are Muslim), they each nervously fished out the cross they wore on a chain around their neck from under their T-shirts. 'We had to hide our Christianity while we waited in France for a month after getting there via Libya,' said Nathaniel. 'They are all Muslims at the camps. We are less scared here in Britain,' he added, pointing out that his name originates from the Bible. In 25 years, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Christian migrants I've met heading for the UK. Nathaniel agreed that he and Chekole are rarities among the 200,000 who've targeted Britain since 2018. The very next morning, Sunday, migrant number 200,000 and his boat companions stepped out of the hotel to take in the air and explore their surroundings. Four Iranians - one aged 31, another 29, and two claiming to be 17 - stopped to chat about their journey. I did not ask this quartet why they had come. Nor did they tell me. But what we do know is that they were let into our country after scant checks, and that our security services have warned that the small boats transporting migrants are likely to be used by proxies of Iran's feared Revolutionary Guard Corps to slip into Britain. The fact is we do not know who may have woken up this morning at the Crowne Plaza hotel with lethal intentions for our country. What we do know is that the Home Office, given the speed at which it screens the boat migrants, cannot possibly know either. In September, the Government contract with the Crowne Plaza will end and it will undergo refurbishment before reopening to the public. By then boat migrant number 200,000 will be living in a free house or flat, with a weekly welfare payment of almost £50 to keep him in the manner he expects to live in his new country - one he will almost certainly never leave. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. 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