Food delivery riders from Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats have been barred from entering a luxury apartment complex near to where protests against asylum seekers have taken place, with management citing media reports that made claims about “undocumented” workers.
The food delivery companies rejected the suggestion they employed undocumented couriers, saying they had robust checks and zero-tolerance policies on illegal working.
The deliveries ban was linked by the east London housing development’s management company, Parkgate Aspen, to controversy at a nearby Canary Wharf hotel where protests and counter-protests have been taking place because it was believed asylum seekers were housed there.
In a “security notice” sent to hundreds of flats at the Canary Riverside complex, the company said residents had been expressing concern about security arrangements in light of the “appropriation of the nearby Britannia hotel for migrant housing and the resultant unrest”.
The notice referred to press reports alleging that some food delivery riders were undocumented, adding that the company had been “finalising plans to restrict them from entering the blocks as they cannot be allowed to roam around for delivery to individual flats”.
It added: “With this new situation arising just a five-minute walk from your estate, this needs to be implemented immediately.” The notice warned that security and concierge staff would no longer allow food couriers to be admitted into the blocks.
The arrangements applied “only to riders from Deliveroo, Just Eat, Uber Eats and the like”, the company said in a later email, adding that grocery deliveries by companies such as Ocado, Tesco and others may be admitted at residents’ discretion.
While Parkgate Aspen said feedback about the move had been “overwhelmingly positive”, there was unease about what one resident described as a sudden “arbitrary ban” on delivery riders, which did not apply to other visitors.
“I think it illustrates the pernicious knock-on effects of this anti-asylum seeker hysteria and how easy it is for authoritarians to seize upon provocations to ramp up tensions,” the resident said.
A spokesperson for Parkgate Aspen told the Guardian that the plan had been in the works for months but had required upgrades to access doors to implement fully.
“The Britannia story prompted many residents to request heightened security, to which we responded by fast-tracking the new arrangements,” she said, adding that a distinction could be drawn with grocery delivery services like Ocado and Tesco because they had fully trained and monitored staff and there was an “audit trail” in the event of any negative incidents. “This is not the case with food delivery drivers, many of whom are undocumented and on ‘sublet’ from the riders registered with the delivery companies,” the spokesperson said.
Parkgate Aspen said in its follow-up notice that the issue of food deliveries to flats had been under discussion since January as a result of increasing incidents of bad behaviour, including riders relieving themselves in stairwells and verbal abuse of residents, such as those who refused to be tailgated into buildings.
In response to Parkgate Aspen’s claims, each of the food delivery companies said they had strict protocols that riders were obliged to adhere to, while measures were in place for audit trails.
A Deliveroo spokesperson: “Deliveroo takes a zero-tolerance approach to illegal working on our platform. If a rider is found to be in breach of the law and their obligations, we will terminate their contract.”
A Just Eat spokesperson said the vast majority of deliveries from Just Eat were completed by registered independent couriers. They had a legal right to work and worked hard to deliver millions of orders every week, the spokesperson said. They added that clear standards and requirements were in place.
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An Uber Eats spokesperson said: “Uber Eats takes a zero-tolerance approach to illegal work. This includes introducing state-of-the-art identity and video verification technology.”
Fresh protests were due to take place outside the Britannia International hotel on Marsh Wall on Friday night. While local people, including women and children, have been involved, the protests have also been heavily promoted by far-right activists and there have been at least four arrests.
The Britannia was one of the first locations where protests promoted by far-right activists gathered steam in the wake of demonstrations outside the Bell hotel in Essex, where there have been violent clashes with police.
The first few protests outside the Britannia were largely peaceful, but disturbances on Sunday resulted in several arrests and police served 28-day return bans on agitators accused of harassing the hotel’s occupants and trying to break through a fence.
Supporters of the far right have been among social media users claiming that asylum seekers are working as delivery drivers while living in the Britannia and that police provided an escort to a “migrant” delivery driver.
Police have said people who were filmed leaving the hotel on mopeds were hotel staff, while a police escort was provided to a delivery driver who was delivering to the address.