1 hour ago The Home Office is attempting to usage 3 much subject sites to location thousands of asylum seekers, arsenic the authorities seeks to determination radical retired of hotels.
Three Ministry of Defence (MoD) sites successful Bicester successful Oxfordshire, Barnham successful Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse successful North Yorkshire, could location astir 3,750 asylum seekers if readying support is granted.
The authorities is besides looking to widen the usage of existing subject sites successful Crowborough, East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield, Essex beyond 2027.
Labour has pledged to halt utilizing asylum hotels, a costly signifier of accommodation that has go a focal constituent for anti-migrant protests.
As of March this year, 20,885 (21%) asylum seekers were successful hotels and 72,768 (75%) were successful different accommodation arsenic they awaited decisions.
The fig of asylum seekers successful hotels has dropped from a highest of 56,000 successful September 2023.
On Thursday, the Home Office said a further 20 asylum hotels had been shut, reducing the fig successful usage to 170.
Border information and asylum curate Alex Norris said: "We are moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a acold outcry from the hotels the past authorities near america with.
"This is simply a strategy being brought backmost nether power – and we volition not halt until the occupation is done."
But Conservative shadiness location caput Chris Philp said Labour "should beryllium putting amerciable immigrants connected a level location alternatively than messing astir with subject camps and hotels".
He said Labour "will not bash what is needed to teardrop down the barriers to deportation, and without deportation, determination is nary deterrent".
The authorities stated its volition to summation the fig of MoD sites it was utilizing to accommodate asylum seekers past year.
Two erstwhile subject sites - RAF Wethersfield successful Essex, and Crowborough Training Camp successful East Sussex - are already being utilized to location asylum seekers.
But the usage of subject sites for this intent has been hampered by applicable difficulties and highly contested by section residents arsenic good arsenic quality rights groups.
This week, an MP said 1 strategy to location up to 300 antheral asylum seekers astatine Cameron Barracks successful Inverness had been dropped, pursuing protests.
The Red Cross said subject barracks "are often successful isolated locations and, by their precise nature, tin retraumatise radical who person fled struggle and persecution".
"It's wide that lodging radical seeking asylum successful hotels isn't moving good for anyone, but immoderate alternate accommodation indispensable alteration radical to unrecorded successful information and dignity," said Sam Turner, British Red Cross manager of migration and displacement, said.
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