What are the government’s options on asylum seeker accommodation?
Since last year’s general election, one of the most contentious political issues has been the question of where to accommodate asylum seekers.
Ministers are considering housing 900 personnel at the Cameron Barracks in Inverness and the Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex as they look to increase the use of military locations as an alternative to hotels.
Small boat crossings have reached near-record numbers, and MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee claim the Home Office has squandered billions of pounds in taxpayer funds on refugee accommodation.
The expected cost of the government’s 10-year asylum accommodation contracts has increased more than threefold, from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion.
Ministers in the Home Office feel that increasing removals of failed asylum seekers and discouraging people from arriving on tiny boats in the first place will be the only way to resolve this issue.
However, while they work to enact policies to achieve those goals, the Home Office must still find a place for the tens of thousands of people seeking asylum to stay.
Arrival
When immigrants arrive in the UK by small boat across the Channel, they are usually taken to a processing centre in Manston, Kent.
The station, located on the old RAF Manston base, was opened by the Home Office in February 2022 in response to an increase of arrivals.
Migrants are meant to be held for 24 hours while officials do security and identity checks, but overcrowding has forced some to stay for weeks. In late 2022, hundreds of migrants were housed in tents at Manston, causing overcrowding and disease, including diphtheria.
The Home Office is now looking into the situation at Manston.
The administration is also seeking planning permission to renovate the property and use it to process asylum seekers into the 2030s.
Initial accommodation
After leaving Manston, asylum seekers are transferred to temporary housing supplied by the Home Office, while officials determine whether they are entitled for additional assistance.
These are meant to be centres run by migrant assistance specialists, but many asylum seekers are instead directed to hotels or hostels right away.
There are 1,750 initial accommodation spots available, and according to the most recent official data, 1,665 of those spots were occupied in June.
Most asylum seekers will subsequently be sent to longer-term housing, where they will remain while their asylum application is assessed.
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