Home Office contractor gives children hotel food containing worms

theguardian.com:

Children at a Home Office hotel unwittingly ate worms that were in food provided to them by government contractors, the Guardian has learned.

A four-year-old boy, not realising that his meal of fish and chips contained worms, began vomiting soon after he started to eat it. Paramedics were called and the boy was taken to hospital.

His father said he experienced the sickness along with a fever for three days and that other family members who ate the same meal experienced similar symptoms. The family have asked not to be identified.

They were being accommodated in a hotel in the Midlands when the incident happened last month and have subsequently been rehoused by the Home Office.

Environmental health officers determined the insects to be parasitic round worms. A council environmental health officer who was alerted to the issue said cooking generally killed these worms. “However, I appreciate that it is an unpleasant experience to come across one in your meal,” he added.

He said he would visit the hotel to carry out spot checks.

The family made a formal complaint to the Home Office contractor Serco. In its response a Serco official wrote: “I can confirm there was an insect of some kind in the food and the hotel were made aware of it at the time. Apologies were given at the time and the housing officers will quality-check the food before service.”

The father of the family said the incident was very distressing. “The food in the hotel was very bad and we had to call the paramedics after my four-year-old son ate the meal and started vomiting,” he said.

It is one of a raft of problems identified in Home Office hotel accommodation for asylum seekers. A recent report from the Refugee Council found that hotel use by the Home Office for