EXCLUSIVE: Migrants drinking and taking drugs outside a central London migrant hotel became hostile when the Express started asking why people were working illegally.
This is the moment a migrant threatened to smash a Daily Express reporter’s face outside an asylum hotel in central London.
The incident took place as the Daily Express quizzed asylum seekers working illegally as delivery drivers in the capital.
Under UK law, asylum seekers cannot work for at least a year as they wait for their claims to be processed, and even those given permits cannot work as delivery drivers.
But when Express investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis tried to talk to the men working illegally, he was greeted with extreme hostility.
As he attempted to ask questions, migrants from the hotel attempted to intimidate him by riding Lime bikes towards him at a fast speed and following him and his videographer.
But one tall man with a Caribbean accent took it further.
Having spent several minutes wandering out onto the pavement to stare down the Express’s camera, he then warned filming should stop or he’d “bust” Garner-Purkis’s head after the investigations editor approached an illegal worker for comment.
“I’m just asking him why he’s working,” Garner-Purkis replied. “And now you’re threatening me.”
It was not the only incident of aggression witnessed by the Express. Two of the migrants hanging around with the drinkers got into an altercation and had to be restrained.
Security at the Home Office site eventually came to break the two men apart.
This was a rare moment of proactivity from a team that, over the hours the Express observed, made no attempt to contain the men’s aggressive antisocial behaviour.
Following the Daily Express’ investigation, we have learned the Home Office is planning to take action in relation to both issues.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Where reports of illegal working or anti-social behaviour are made, immigration enforcement teams in the Home Office investigate.
“We are taking action to clamp down on illegal working in all its forms, which is why we are introducing new laws to extend right to work checks for those in the gig economy, including for food delivery drivers.”
The hotel’s owner said the venue was “under a private booking” and, therefore, it was “unable to comment on any operations or individuals within that booking.”