The Home Office is looking to send hundreds of asylum seekers to Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex while their claims are processed to get people out of hotels
Hundreds of asylum seekers are set to be moved to military sites in Scotland and Sussex in a drive to end the use of hotels.
The Home Office has confirmed that sites would be used to house around 900 men temporarily. And officials are working to identify more potential sites as pressure mounts to shut hotels quickly.
The plans will see men housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex. Both of the sites were used to accommodate Afghans during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021.
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It follows a damning report which found billions of pounds were wasted on expensive contracts due to a failure of leadership under the Tories.
Defence minister Luke Pollard told Sky News: “The Prime Minister has been very clear that he wants to close all asylum hotels. We’ve committed to do so by the end of the Parliament.
“Twenty four have already closed, saving £1billion. But we want to go faster. And as part of the challenge that the Prime Minister has set to close every asylum hotel, the MOD is stepping up.
“We’re looking at the sites that we have available where we could house asylum seekers, allowing the Home Office to close more asylum hotels faster. It’s right that we step up and support our Home Office colleagues in this respect, because I don’t think anyone wants to see asylum hotels open.
“That’s why we’ve got fewer of them open this year than we had last year when we took office. But we want to close every single one of them. And I think it’s right that we look across Government-owned estates, which includes the estate that the Ministry of Defense uses. And where we can support the Home Office, we will.”
He continued: “The accommodation that we’re looking to provide for the Home Office is adequate for the needs. It’s not luxury, but it’s adequate and that is an important part, I think, of, making sure that there is a adequate deterrent effect for people coming to the UK where they have no right to be here.”
Mr Pollard said the military barracks being provided to the Home Office are not run by the MOD, saying: “Really importantly, they will be run by a provider that will have a contract with the Home Office.
“It’s right that there is a contractual framework in place for the provision of those services, which relates everything from, food and, cleaning up to, security.”
The move is part of Government efforts to end the use of asylum hotels, which a parliamentary committee branded “failed, chaotic and expensive” on Monday. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“This Government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well under way, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.”
As of June this year, around 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, down from a peak of more than 56,000 in 2023 but 2,500 more than at the same point last year.
And expected costs of Home Office accommodation contracts for 2019-2029 have tripled from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, following what the Commons Home Affairs Committee called a “dramatic increase” in demand.
On Monday Keir Starmer said he was “frustrated and angry” as he sought to blame the previous government for leaving a “huge mess” in the asylum system by failing to process people’s claims.