The first 50 hotels across the UK will stop housing asylum
seekers by the end of January, as a result of a more than 20%
drop in small boat crossings compared to last year, the
Immigration Minister has confirmed today (24 October 2023).
The Home Office has already notified local authorities, MPs and
the accommodation providers, informing them that the first 50
hotels temporarily accommodating asylum seekers will be exited as
part of the move to return hotels to their proper use by
communities.
Initial efforts will focus on hotels that can be exited quickly.
This announcement will help to relieve pressures on local
services in the areas where exits are taking place, and provide a
boost to the local economy.
These hotels will be gradually handed back to hoteliers by the
end of January 2024, with the first of these expected to be
exited in the coming days.
Asylum seekers currently accommodated in these hotels will be
moving to other parts of the UK’s asylum estate, including the
Bibby Stockholm barge.
Immigration Minister said:
Taxpayers cannot be expected to foot the eye-watering bill for
the use of hotels to accommodate individuals making illegal,
dangerous and wholly unnecessary small boat crossings.
Our strategy to stop the boats is making progress. With small
boat arrivals down more than 20% compared with last year, we can
now start to restore these hotels to their rightful use for local
communities.
We remain absolutely determined, through the implementation of
the Illegal Migration Act and our Rwanda partnership, to
dismantle the smuggling gangs’ business models and stop the boats
entirely.
The move comes amid a decrease in small boat crossings, which are
down by more than 20% compared to this point in 2022.
This move has been achieved due to the government’s wider efforts
to tackle illegal migration, including our ongoing work with our
international partners such as our agreement with the French
government, and strengthened partnerships with Turkey and Italy
to tackle organised immigration crime.
On top of this, the government is going even further
through our Illegal Migration Act which
will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are
detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a
safe third country.
Capacity has also been increased by making better use of sites in
the current asylum estate, by optimising room sharing and
alternative accommodation sites, such as the former military base
at Wethersfield and the Bibby Stockholm barge, which offer better
value for the taxpayer and are more manageable for
communities.
The Home Office will work closely with accommodation providers
and local authorities to manage the exit process in a way that
limits the impact on partners and service users alike.
Today’s announcement on exiting hotels is just one part of the
government’s wider efforts to tackle illegal
migration.
Specifically, since the signing of the Joint Communiqué with the
government of Albania in December 2022, more than 4,100 Albanian
nationals with no right to be in the UK have been returned. This
includes some people who were returned 48 hours after illegally
arriving by small boat.
There has also been a clamp down on rogue employers, with 4,721
illegal working visits carried out between the start of January
and the end of September 2023. A shake-up of civil penalties in
August also means employers of illegal workers are set
to face fines of up to £60,000.
