The Home Office has announced plans to relocate hundreds of asylum seekers from hotels to military sites in Scotland and Sussex. Around 900 men will be temporarily housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex, with efforts underway to identify additional suitable sites.
This decision comes in response to mounting pressure to swiftly close down the use of hotels for asylum seekers. The move follows a critical report highlighting wasteful spending on expensive contracts due to leadership failures under the previous government.
Defence minister Luke Pollard emphasized the government’s commitment to shutting down all asylum hotels by the end of the current Parliament. Already, 24 hotels have been closed, saving £1 billion, but there is a push to accelerate the process. The Ministry of Defence is actively exploring available sites on government-owned estates to facilitate the closure of more hotels promptly.
Pollard assured that the accommodation provided at military barracks will be basic but sufficient for the asylum seekers’ needs, emphasizing the importance of deterring illegal entry into the UK.
The decision to transition asylum seekers to military barracks is part of a broader government initiative to phase out the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers. The move comes after a parliamentary committee criticized the current hotel system as failed, chaotic, and costly.
As of June this year, approximately 32,000 asylum seekers were accommodated in hotels, a decrease from the peak of over 56,000 in 2023 but still higher than the previous year. The costs of Home Office accommodation contracts have surged from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion for the period of 2019-2029 due to a significant rise in demand, according to the Commons Home Affairs Committee.
Keir Starmer expressed frustration and anger, attributing the challenges in the asylum system to the failures of the previous government in processing claims efficiently. The current government is committed to closing all asylum hotels, with ongoing efforts to identify more suitable accommodation sites to alleviate pressure on communities and reduce costs.