Thousands of people who come to the UK seeking refuge end up in hotels (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)
Labour will come under fire this coming week for continuing to use hotels as accommodation for asylum seekers at a multi-million pound cost to the taxpayer when MPs vent their frustration in a special debate.
Attention will focus on venues which are reopening as “asylum hotels” having previously returned to normal use.
Windsor MP Jack Rankin was contacted by a Home Office official on an October night last year and told that a local hotel would be used to house “up to 85 single adult male” migrants “within the next 24 hours” in the village of Datchet.
Labour ”. But at the end of September 33,651 – a third of all those receiving asylum support – were accommodated in hotels.
Mr Rankin, who has secured a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday, says his constituents are “desperate for answers” about how long the Manor hotel will be used in this way but has yet to receive an answer.
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He said: “Labour is already failing on illegal migration. They made a manifesto promise to end the use of hotels – but have opened more.”
Criticising , he said: “They scrapped the deterrent – yet have presided over an additional 23,000 illegal migrants crossing the channel since taking office. They said they’d ‘smash the gangs’ – but their own minister in charge confessed this is like playing ‘whack-a-mole’.
“All the while, communities like the village of Datchet in my constituency of Windsor continue to see pressure placed onto their services – like GPs – and damage done to the local tourism industry through the closure of the Manor hotel to the public.”
He said that a third of MPs are “in the same position” with “a migrant hotel in their constituency but no real timeframe or plan for closure”.
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Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, described a “crisis”.
He said: “The failure of successive Governments to build more homes and protect social housing has created a crisis for all of us. At the sharp end are those of us on a long waiting list for a home or sat in emergency housing, or people seeking asylum who are placed in a cramped hotel room that’s being attacked by the far right.
“At the other end are profiteers such as the private providers of housing, and the politicians who exploit the crisis to scapegoat migrants and welfare recipients to hide their own failures.
“It’s time for a revolution in social housing so we can have a system that can deliver a safe and secure home for everyone in our society, including people seeking asylum.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government inherited enormous pressure throughout the immigration system. We are determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly.
“We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels as we ramp up the returns of failed asylum seekers returning 16,400 people who had no right to be in the UK since the election.”