Holiday park hit by abuse after family wrongly identified as asylum seekers
The backlash against Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, Cornwall, began after a visitor staying at the site began filming a large Asian family group who had arrived there by coach on Sunday afternoon.
In the clip, the man can be heard telling the group "we don’t want you here", explaining that he had raised concerns to the resort’s bar staff, before adding: "they think I’m racist".
The footage was later posted to social media, where it gained traction on local community groups, with a slew of inaccurate comments suggesting the group was comprised of asylum seekers being housed by the government.
Speaking with Media, Henry, 32, whose family runs the site, expressed his "frustration" at the false claims online, revealing the group was just a large family enjoying a holiday, adding that his employees had faced "hundreds of abusive calls".
"It just sort of snowballed," he explains.
"The rumours were they was asylum seekers," Henry explains. "I think purely because of their colour, and because of the coach, people assumed that they were asylum seekers".
"If we had taken asylum seekers, then Christ, yeah, we would be getting some flak," he adds.
"You start thinking, what have we actually done wrong?"
In the footage, the man filming is seen to hound the group, who are wearing backpacks and gathered close to picnic tables.
After confronting the group, one member calmly asks whether the person filming is ok - and his reason for recording, to which he responds: "Well not really, because we don’t want you here".
He then questions why the group were allowed to stay at the site, given Tencreek’s policy of not accepting stag parties or large group bookings of men or women.
"If it was a group in their 20s it would be different, but we were told they were a family and their ages ranged from mid-20s to mid-50s and 60s," Henry explains.
The clip rapidly gained traction online after being shared in local community groups, subsequently attracting a flurry of inaccurate comments and misinformation.
"We’re a family-run holiday park, for families. We’re just never going to take asylum seekers; it’s the busiest time of the year. We just never would."
He describes how the family in question had travelled to Cornwall from London and "were as good as gold" during their stay.
"They stayed the night, left the following morning. No one would have known they were there apart from this one video."
He also revealed that the family "had the same experience when they turned up in Newquay" the previous day.
"It’s so frustrating, it’s just been skewed in such a way that people call and think we’re now asylum seekers - it’s so far from the truth. It’s just annoying."
In recent days, strangers have taken to leaving one-star Google reviews, as well as hundreds of nuisance phone calls being made to the site.
"It’s just not nice for staff to just get abused all day," Henry explained. "We started getting abusive phone calls. We’ve got a few hundred of them a day."
Posting to their Facebook page in the wake of the incident, the family-run business said: "As a family-run business, we are proud to welcome guests from all backgrounds and remain committed to providing a positive and respectful environment for everyone who visits.
"We appreciate the support and understanding shown by our local community and look forward to continuing to welcome visitors to Cornwall in the spirit of hospitality and respect."
Henry also revealed that since the incident, the business has actually seen an uptick in support from the local community and beyond.
"To be honest, we actually saw a spike in bookings," Henry explained.
The case is just the latest in a string of incidents falsely identifying groups as asylum seekers.
Last year, Welsh villagers wrongly believed a group of Scottish teenagers at a summer camp were asylum seekers, sparking a wave of online abuse that police are investigating.
The clip, posted on Facebook, was flooded with abusive comments and fake claims that Gwent Police were guarding the area.
The video was removed after police were alerted – with Scout leaders warned over a “racially aggravated incident targeting under-18s”.
World Affairs Correspondent
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