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A REFUGEE has been on hunger strike for 12 days in protest at conditions at a Stockport hotel run by disgraced outsourcing firm Serco for the Home Office.

Manchester-based refugee support group Rapper (Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research) reported that it had investigated the hotel and found shocking conditions, including inedible food, skin diseases, Staff including abuse and littering on the landing.

Serco and the Home Office denied such conditions existed, but Stockport Council said it shared Rapar's concerns about the hotel.

Council leader Mark Hunter said: “Asylum seekers and Stockport residents are suffering. "Asylum seekers are locked up in a hotel for months and this inhumane treatment serves as a petri dish for mental health problems in a group that is already vulnerable."

Rapper founder Dr Rita Moran said one refugee, who was staying at the hotel with his family, has been on a hunger strike, not eating since November 2.

According to the rapper, the refugee was taken to hospital two days later after collapsing.

He has been told he will be returned to the hotel, but both he and his wife are afraid to go back because of the abuse they say they have been subjected to in the past, according to the group, which said the man had been told by Stockport Council and local MPs to look for him elsewhere in safe accommodation.

Serco and the Home Office have been invited to comment.