UK Government Relocates Asylum Seekers from Hotels to Army Barracks

The UK government has begun relocating hundreds of asylum seekers from hotels to army barracks, with 11 'asylum hotels' in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland closed, and more set to close in the coming weeks.

About 350 claimants have been moved to the Crowborough military camp in east Sussex, described as 'basic accommodation'. This move follows a pledge by Keir Starmer to close all hotels housing asylum seekers before the next general election.

Background

Reform UK has been campaigning for the closure of all 200 asylum hotels, which house around 30,000 people. Other asylum seekers, totaling over 70,000, live in shared housing or military barracks. The number of hotels still used to house asylum seekers has decreased to 185, down from a peak of 400.

Asylum seekers are forced to live in government-funded accommodation because they are not allowed to work for the first year while their claims are being processed. The Home Office is required to provide them with housing.

A statement from the Home Office confirmed that it is no longer housing asylum seekers in the Banbury House hotel in Oxfordshire, the Marine Court hotel in Bangor, County Down, and the Citrus hotel in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, among others.

Alex Norris, the immigration minister, stated: 'Hotels were meant to be a short-term stopgap under the previous government, but they spiralled out of control – costing taxpayers billions and dumping the consequences on local communities. We are shutting them down by moving people into more basic accommodation, scaling up large sites, removing record numbers of people with no right to remain.'

According to the Home Office, the latest hotel closures will save £65m. However, refugee NGOs argue that hotels are unsuitable for long-term accommodation and that large military sites are not a suitable alternative.

Imran Hussain, the director of external affairs at Refugee Council, said: 'The government’s own spending watchdog previously found that they are more expensive than hotels, and they isolate people from local communities and essential services.' He added that giving permission to stay for a limited period to people from certain countries could empty hotels within a few months.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, criticized the government's handling of asylum seeker accommodation, stating that there are more asylum seekers in hotels than at the time of the election, despite the government's efforts to relocate them to residential apartments.