- Newport Road in Cardiff now renamed 'Asylum Street' by local residents
- Around 50 migrants have been housed in row of homes including old B&B
- Tripadvisor review says: 'This is a lovely place to stay, reminds me very much of similar places in Calais, Sicily and Greece'
A Cardiff road has been renamed 'Asylum Street' by locals who have also written a scathing TripAdvisor review of a guest house now home to 50 migrants.
The asylum seekers spend hours sitting outside the row of four and five bedroom houses rented by the Home Office in Roath, an area of the city now being compared to Calais.
The majority are single young men from Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia who are starting a new life at the Lynx House guest house on busy Newport Road in the Welsh capital.
New home: A street of six neighbouring houses in Cardiff has been turned into home for dozens of asylum seekers from Africa - paid for by the Home Office - and locals are calling it a nuisance
City life: A group of men, among around 50 living there, enjoy a cigarette and read some documents in the Cardiff sunshine
Review: A local, calling himself David, has written this review of the Lynx Guest House now used by the Home Office
The B&B made up out of the six houses has been taken over by a management company working on behalf of the Home Office to house migrants while their asylum applications are being processed.
Some neighbours call it 'Asylum Street' or 'Immigration Alley' - and it even has its own spoof review on Tripadvisor.
In the five-star rating it reads: 'This is a lovely place to stay, reminds me very much of similar places in Calais, Sicily and Greece
'If you are travelling far, perhaps in the back of a cross channel truck, or a boat across the Med, then this is a lovely place to stay. Most guests are very friendly, with lots of mobile phones and designer jeans.'
The men say they have fled brutal regimes in their countries with several fleeing war torn Darfur to make the hazardous 3,000 mile journey across the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean.
Musab Muawia, 26, left his wife behind in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after being hounded by the authorities and spending one month in prison.
Musab, who worked in market, paid 500 dollars to people smugglers to take him by car to the Libyan coast before being jammed in a boat across to Italy.
He said the boat capsized with the loss of many lives but he managed to stay afloat before being picked up by an Italian coastguard vessel.
He then travelled across Europe by train before reaching England hiding on a Channel Tunnel train.
Honesty: Many of the men have spoken of their arduous journeys to Britain - often fleeing persecution in their home countries
Critical: Some neighbours now call the stetch of Newport Road 'Asylum Street' or 'Immigration Alley'
He said: 'It was hard to leave my wife but life was becoming difficult for me and I hope she is able to join me one day.
'Police wrongly suspected me of working against the Government and were stopping me walking down the street even though I had nothing to hide.
'I decided to try to reach Britain and not another European country because I understand the English language.'
Another Sudanese, 27-year-old single man Abdul, followed a similar route taking him two months.
In broken English he said: 'I fled the fighting in Darfur - it was terrible with many people being killed and I never felt safe. Now I feel safe.'
A neighbour of the hotel said: 'They are a nuisance just hanging around all day long with nothing to do.
'They congregate outside and clog up the pavements but apart from that they don't seem to be any trouble.
'You have got to feel sorry for them but I just wonder where it will all end.'
The guest house has been taken over by the Clear Springs management company who arrange housing for refugees in Wales and southern England.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'Clear Springs are contracted by us to provide housing for asylum seekers.
'If no permanent housing is available they usually use accommodation such as guest houses but our guidance is that it should only be used as a short term measure.'
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