Asylum seekers face being made homeless if they refuse Home Office orders to move them across the country under government plans to close migrant hotels.
Hundreds of migrants are refusing to be transferred every week, according to Home Office sources, frustrating the department’s attempts to reduce the number of hotels being used for asylum seekers. Some hotels have been forced to remain in use for as few as three migrants due to their refusal to move out.
Under plans to be announced today, asylum seekers will be threatened with losing their taxpayer-funded accommodation and weekly £50 allowance if they block transfer requests under a new “failure to travel” policy. The average cost for each migrant in a hotel is £118 per night and there is no maximum amount it could cost.
Those without a valid reason who refuse to move on the second time of receiving a Home Office transfer notification will risk losing their housing and support. The policy will only apply to single adult male asylum seekers.
Migrants on a bus in Dover, Kent, after crossing the Channel in small boats
GARETH FULLER/PA
Dame Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, said the move was a “firm but fair approach” aimed at ending the abuse of asylum support and the policy will “establish clear consequences for those who game the system”.
As of March there were a total of 106,771 asylum seekers in receipt of taxpayer-funded support, including 32,345 in hotels. Asylum seekers receive this support for an average of 413 days. They are not allowed to work for the first 12 months and after that can work only in occupations with labour shortages. The backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum application was 109,536 as of March.
Asylum seekers are given free accommodation and a £50 weekly allowance — or £9.95 if the accommodation provides food — if the Home Office decides they would otherwise be destitute. This applies to the majority of those who claim asylum after arriving on small boats or through other means.
Cresta Court hotel is being used to house migrants in Altrincham, Greater Manchester
CONSTANCE KAMPFNER FOR THE TIMES
At present, the government cannot force asylum seekers to move to other parts of the country. Migrants can simply ignore multiple letters notifying them of the Home Office’s intention to move them to other asylum accommodation and there is currently no mechanism for the Home Office to enforce the transfer.
The only time the Home Office has threatened removal of allowances was during the previous government’s use of the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, where about 300 asylum seekers were transferred from hotels across the south of England.
Labour will trigger the same measure in order to step up its efforts to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers, which is costing taxpayers £5.77 million per day. The average cost per night for each asylum seeker to be accommodated in a hotel is £118.87, compared to about £15 for other accommodation such as large houses, bedsits and self-contained flats across different local authorities.
Pressure is mounting on the Home Office to speed up efforts to stop using hotels, of which more than 200 are still in operation. That is down from a peak of 400 in 2023.
Ministers are facing fresh calls to close two hotels that have been the centre of protests in Epping in Essex and Diss in Norfolk. Epping Forest district council is discussing legal action to force the closure of the Bell Hotel, which has housed migrants since 2020. It attracted protests after Hadush Kebatu, 38, an Ethiopian migrant and resident of the hotel, was charged with three counts of sexual assault, one of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one of harassment without violence. He denies the charges, which relate to two teenagers and a woman. He arrived in the UK on a small boat eight days beforehand.
On Thursday the council voted to close the hotel after agreeing that it had become untenable for it to continue housing migrants due to the pressure placed on the local area and police force from the regular protests.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has committed the government to ending the use of asylum hotels by the next election. Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, told MPs this week that there was “lots” of housing available to accommodate migrants.
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Eagle said: “We inherited an asylum system on the brink of collapse — mismanaged, under strain and costing the public a fortune. We are getting a grip. We are working to close hotels, restore order and put fairness and value for money at the heart of our asylum system.
“This government is making those necessary decisions to protect the taxpayer and uphold the integrity of our borders. These reforms to the Failure to Travel policy are another example of this government’s action to transform the asylum accommodation system and crack down on those who abuse our system, so it operates fairly and saves the taxpayer money.”