Small Boat Migrant Crossings (Image: Getty)
The minister responsible for border security has said “I apologise” after Labour opened more asylum seeker hotels despite promising to close them.
But Dame Angela Eagle, the Minister for Border Security and Asylum, could not confirm when asylum seekers would be moved out and hotels returned to their normal use, despite warnings that local economies are suffering and residents are being harassed.
She could only say “I hope” that even more hotels would not be commandeered by the Government to house the thousands claiming asylum.
There are currently 220 hotels across the country used to house asylum seekers and the number has risen by six since the election. There are 35,651 asylum seekers in hotels according to the most recent figures, up by 6,000 since the election, at a cost to taxpayers of £5.4 million every day.
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Labour promised in its general election manifesto last year: “We will hire additional caseworkers to clear the ’ backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.”
It now says it plans to close nine hotels by March.
Highlighting the impact on communities, Windsor MP Jack Rankin said asylum seekers had been moved into a hotel in Thameside, a village of about 4,000 people less than two miles away from Windsor Castle. He said: “Residents raised numerous concerns about antisocial behaviour associated directly with the hotel, including verbal abuse, public defecation and the photographing of children outside schools. These are the real-life impacts of this effective asylum amnesty.”
Dame Angela said: “Since the general election, nine hotels have closed. Fifteen hotels were opened temporarily, and I apologise to the Member for Windsor for the speed with which that had to be done. It is not ideal and I would not want to be in that position again.
“I have asked Home Office officials to be more open and transparent, as far ahead of time as possible, to try to give warning. We do not want any nasty surprises.”
But she could not give a date for asylum seekers being moved out, beyond confirming plans to close nine hotels by March.
And she said: “I certainly hope that, as we look for more dispersed accommodation and a more effective, faster system, we will get to the stage where we do not have to open any more.”
Asylum seeker hotels are also costing jobs, said Mid-Leicestershire MP Peter Bedford. He said: “The impact on the local economy is equally damaging, because hotels that once supported our villages and brought in tourism revenue are now closed to the public. Local jobs have been lost.”
Nearly 20,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Labour came to power.
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Labour scrapped the previous government’s plans to house asylum seekers in larger sites including a former prison, HMP Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, which the Home Office bought in September 2023 for £15.4 million.
Asylum seekers have also been moved off the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, a scheme which cost £34 million, and plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire have been scrapped after spending £27 million.
The previous government also spent £2.9 million on plans to use a RAF Linton-on-Ouse, a disused airbase in North Yorkshire, before the plan was axed while the were still in power.
Home Office data shows 13,000 asylum seekers are staying in hotels in London while another 4,000 are in the North West of England, including more than 1,200 in Manchester. Around 1,180 asylum seekers are in hotel accommodation in Birmingham.