Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is working with the Home Office to help find places to house asylum seekers to speed up hotel closures
Use of military barracks to house asylum seekers will be ramped up to shut hotels faster, Labour’s defence secretary has said.
John Healey confirmed defence chiefs have held talks about using Ministry Of Defence sites to temporarily house small boat arrivals. It comes as pressure increases on Keir Starmer to get people out of hotels ahead of his pledge to do so by 2029.
Mr Healey said the Government was “going up a gear” to tackle the asylum chaos Labour inherited. New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who replaced Yvette Cooper in a reshuffle on Friday, is expected to take a hardline approach to emptying asylum hotels.
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Mr Healey revealed all departments have been told they must do their bit to help. He said: I have been putting military planners into (the Home Office) border command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and nonmilitary use sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here or need to be processed rapidly.”
At the end of June 32,000 people were being housed in hotels while their asylum claims were processed. This is down from over 56,000 under the Tories.
Ms Mahmood’s elevation to Home Secretary was the most high-profile promotion in Friday’s reshuffle. She has been ordered to get a grip of the hotels shambles and instructed to find ways of getting people out well before 2029.
Labour has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of the current Parliament in four years. But Mr Starmer has said he intends to meet this goal sooner.
Ms Mahmood, who was praised for her work as Justice Secretary tackling the prisons crisis, is expected to announce plans to ramp up the use of military bases. Currently, there are two former bases being used to house asylum seekers.
Theres are MDP Wethersfeld in Essex and Napier Barracks in Folkestone. Protests have been held outside asylum hotels across the country as tensions ramp up following the arrest and conviction of an asylum seeker living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, for two sexual assaults, harassing a 14-year-old girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and an attempted sexual assault.
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