The Defence Secretary has stated that the government is exploring the expansion of military sites for housing asylum seekers, aiming to reduce reliance on hotels.
John Healey also confirmed that officials are evaluating alternative “non-military” accommodation options.
Currently, just over 32,000 asylum seekers are accommodated in hotels, representing approximately one-third of those housed in taxpayer-funded accommodation.
The Labour Party aims to expedite its plan to discontinue the use of hotels, which have become a focal point for anti-migrant demonstrations.
Reports suggest that Shabana Mahmood, who succeeded Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary on Friday, is expected to announce proposals within weeks to house asylum seekers on military land.
Two former military sites, MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base in Essex, and Napier Barracks, a former military base in Kent, are already in use for housing asylum seekers, having been opened under the previous Conservative government.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Defence Secretary confirmed the government’s assessment of additional “military and non-military sites for potential temporary accommodation.”
While his department has yet to confirm a list of sites, Healey indicated that military planners are collaborating with the Home Office on potential options.
“What you are seeing from Keir Starmer now is this isn’t just a job for the Home Office, it’s an all of government effort,” he added.
The Home Office reported that 1,097 individuals crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, Mahmood’s first full day in office, highlighting the magnitude of the challenges she faces.
The total number of crossings this year has now surpassed 30,000, marking the earliest point in a calendar year that this threshold has been reached.
Since assuming office, Labour has shelved plans developed under the Conservatives to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, citing concerns that the proposal did not represent value for money for taxpayers.
However, the government is expected to increase the number of migrants residing at the former RAF Wethersfield site in Essex. Napier Barracks in Kent, which was initially slated to cease housing asylum seekers this month, is also set to remain open longer.
The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has increased substantially since approximately 2020, with total accommodation contracts now valued at £15.3bn over a 10-year period.
Figures released last month indicated that 32,059 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at the end of June – higher than when Labour took office, but considerably lower than the peak of 56,042 recorded in September 2023 under the previous administration.
An additional 74,016 individuals were accommodated in taxpayer-funded housing, primarily “dispersal” accommodation such as rented flats, which is considered more long-term.
Downing Street has previously affirmed that officials are considering housing asylum seekers in prefabricated buildings on a variety of sites, including industrial land.
Cooper, the new Foreign Secretary, also stated previously that her former department was evaluating the possibility of housing individuals in warehouses.
The Conservatives have attributed this year’s elevated level of Channel crossings to Labour’s decision to abandon their plan to deport certain asylum seekers to Rwanda – a plan that they failed to implement before losing the last election.
Speaking to Kuenssberg, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch stated that Sir Keir “had no plan in place” to replace the “deterrent” that their Rwanda plan was intended to provide.
Reform UK, which claims it could deport 600,000 people within five years if it assumes power, states that it would also house individuals entering the UK illegally in prefabricated, or “modular” detention centers prior to removal.
The party asserts that it would construct a series of new removal centers in “remote parts of the country,” but has declined to specify particular locations.
It states that the new centers would be “basic but not punitive,” containing prefabricated two-person rooms, on-site medical facilities, and canteen catering.
Speaking to Sky News, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, denied that this would include shipping containers, adding: “They’re not shipping containers, they’re purpose-built modular steel structures”.
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