Asylum seeker hotel in Falkirk which attracted anti-immigration protests to close

A hotel in Falkirk housing asylum seekers, which attracted anti-immigration protests, is to close.

Campaign groups, including Save Our Future and Our Kids Future, organised demonstrations outside the Cladhan Hotel on a number of occasions last year.

The demonstrations attracted far-right groups, including Patriotic Alternative (PA) and the Homeland Party.

Counter-demonstrations, organised by Stand Up To Racism, were also held outside the Cladhan.

Police were called to the hotel on September 9 last year, after a brick was thrown at a window, shattering it.

First Minister John Swinney described the attack as “absolutely despicable” and said he was left “appalled” by the thought that people were “experiencing fear and terror in Scotland.”

STV News understands the hotel is being permanently closed and had begun being cleared out in July.

It has lain empty over the summer but is now in the process of having its contract cancelled.

Tensions in the area rose after Muhammad Sheikhi, an asylum seeker who had been staying at the Cladhan, sexually assaulted two women near the hotel and was jailed for four years in August.

The 23-year-old carried out both attacks in the early hours of November 30, 2025.

He targeted the first woman at a railway bridge on Kerse Lane, where he hugged her, repeatedly kissed her on the face and mouth, and put his hands under her skirt.

He then sexually assaulted a second woman in Kerse Lane and the nearby Bellsmeadow skate park, where he pinned her against a tree before putting his hands under her clothing.

An Afghan asylum seeker was also convicted in June 2025 of raping a 15-year-old girl in the town centre in October 2023.

Sadeq Nikzad, 29, was jailed for nine years at the High Court in Edinburgh.