Home Office plan to use more military bases to house asylum seekers

The Home Office is attempting to use three more military sites to house thousands of asylum seekers, as the government seeks to move people out of hotels. Three Ministry of Defence (MoD) sites in Bicester in Oxfordshire, Barnham in Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, could house about 3,750 asylum seekers if planning permission is granted. The government is also looking to extend the use of existing military sites in Crowborough, East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield, Essex beyond 2027. Labour has pledged to stop using asylum hotels, a costly form of accommodation that has become a focal point for anti-migrant protests. As of March this year, 20,885 (21%) asylum seekers were in hotels and 72,768 (75%) were in other accommodation as they awaited decisions. The number of asylum seekers in hotels has dropped from a peak of 56,000 in September 2023. On Thursday, the Home Office said a further 20 asylum hotels had been shut, reducing the number in use to 170. Border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said: "We are moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last government left us with. "This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done." But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour "should be putting illegal immigrants on a plane home rather than messing around with military camps and hotels". …