A ‘failure of public policy’ under the Tories saw former immigration minister Robert Jenrick brag about how fast he was securing hotel rooms as the asylum backlog grew and grew
The Government faces an asylum hotel crisis as councils line up to launch legal challenges which could see thousands of people kicked out.
On Tuesday the High Court granted a temporary injuction preventing the Bell Hotel in Epping from housing migrants after weeks of tension. Home Office lawyers had warned that such a ruling “could put Britain’s asylum hotel scheme at risk of falling apart” as ministers grapple to shut down venues.
Dozens of local authorities are now exploring similar challenges, with the Government now drawing up contingency plans. Labour has vowed to end the use of hotels by the end of this Parliament after the Tories resorted to using them when the asylum system descended into chaos. Experts said a “failure of public policy”, with years of not processing asylum claims by the Conservatives, led to people being put in expensive accommodation.
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In 2023, when the asylum backlog was a mammoth 175,000, more than 400 hotels were in use, housing over 56,000 people. At the time Robert Jenrick, who was immigration minister, bragged at the speed he was securing rooms.
He said, in a quote dug up by Labour this week: “More hotels have been coming online almost every month throughout the whole of this year. So Suella Braverman and her predecessor Priti Patel were securing more hotels. What I have done in my short tenure is wrap that up and secure even more.”
The brazen Shadow Justice Secretary has been vocal on the issue of asylum hotels in recent weeks, joining demonstrations outside the Bell Hotel to protest about problems his party caused. The backlog swelled after the UK lost its legal right to return migrants to Europe after Brexit, while a string of botched laws under the Tories failed to drive down small boat crossings. The Conservatives pinned their hopes on being able to send people to Rwanda as the number of people in the asylum system grew and grew.
Labour has pledged to get a grip of the chaos, but says it will take time to see the results. At the end of March this year there were 32,345 people living in asylum hotels, Home Office figures show. This was up from 29,585 when Labour came to power. It means 31% of asylum seekers were receiving asylum support earlier this year.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the Government accepts that hotels are not the most appropriate place for asylum seekers to be housed. And in the immediate aftermath of the Epping judgment, border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said Labour had “inherited a broken asylum system”.
Dame Angela said the Government would “continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns” around asylum hotels. Imran Hussain, from the Refugee Council, told Sky News: “Nobody thinks asylum seekers should be kept in hotels while their case is being assessed.
“It’s very expensive. It’s not good for the asylum seekers. It’s isolating. It’s an isolating experince I think even before the protests, with the protests it’s incredibly terrifying for people.
“And of course as we’ve seen for local communities, there’s a lot of tension, some of which is being exploited by people on the far- right. So no one thinks it’s a good idea.”
And explaining how hotels came to be used, Mr Hussain continued: “This isn’t a planning issue, really. This is a failure of public policy. For 20 odd years that we’ve supported asylum seekers through, the system worked perfectly well.
“We had accommodation for people without using hotels. But the last few years there’s been a huge backlog of cases that’s grown up because the previous government (the Tories) stopped making decisions on cases because it wanted to send people to Rwanda.
“The backlog has meant the accommodation that was existing was full and people have had to use hotels.”
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