The Home Office is seeking planning permission to use MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire to house asylum seekers as it announced 20 hotels will shutThe Home Office is seeking to move asylum seekers to MOD Bicester (Image: Press Association)More military barracks will be used to house asylum seekers and get them out of hotels, it has been announced.The Home Office said it will ramp up its drive to move people to Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites as it confirmed 20 more hotels will shut. On Thursday Keir Starmer said fewer Channel crossings mean fewer asylum seekers need to be housed as he said the system is “more under control” than it was under the Tories.Next week Shabana Mahmood is set to publish new legislation removing obstacles to deportations. Ms Mahmood, who is widely expected to remain as Home Secretary if Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, claims existing laws are open to abuse.Ministers plan to send people to MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire. They also want to extend the use of existing asylum sites in Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027.The government is seeking to extend the use of Crowborough training camp to house asylum seekers(Image: PA)Campaign groups have voiced their outrage, warning that military sites are unsuitable to house traumatised people. On Thursday Mr Starmer defended the government’s record on migration, saying Labour had made “really important progress” since coming to power. And he said it is crucial not to allow the asylum system to spiral out of control like it did under the Conservatives.The Prime Minister said: “In the first two years of this government, we have made really important progress on immigration. One of the tests of an outgoing Prime Minister is whether you leave the country in a better state than what you found it, and I am leaving it in a better state.“Migration has long been a cause for concern. On lawful migration, which when we came in two years ago, net migration was nearly a million, we got that down to about a fifth of that number, so a huge reduction, over 80% reduction.“On the crossings across the channel, which so many people are understandably concerned about, we brought those numbers down as well. The steps we are taking are beginning to pay off, and at the same time, asylum hotels are closing.“Now those are linked. Fewer crossings mean there are less people that need to be housed.” He went on: “Now there is more to do, but in a much better place than we were two years ago.“The ambition is to close those asylum hotels, reduce those channel crossings. Nobody should be making that crossing. And having got it more under control it’s about keeping it under control and not letting it spiral like the last government.”At the end of December there were 30,657 asylum seekers living in hotels. There are around 170 hotels currently in use, down from 400 in 2023 – when a peak of 56,042 people were being accommodated this way.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will set out new legislation next week(Image: Getty Images)Mr Starmer pledged to close all remaining asylum hotels by 2029. Asylum minister Alex Norris said: “We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities, and that is exactly what we are doing. Twenty more hotels have closed, and hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak.”Instead, we’re moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with.”The MOD site in Bicester was earmarked for asylum accommodation under Tony Blair, but was never used due to a fall in demand. RAF Barnham – previously used as a storage site for nuclear weapons – has been rumoured to be under consideration after activity on the site in recent weeks.And RAF Linton-on-Ouse was set to be an asylum site under the Tories, but they abandoned the idea in 2022 after widespread local opposition. Together, these new sites could house around 3,750 people.Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at Helen Bamber Foundation, said she was appalled at the plans. She said: “We have repeatedly shown through clinical evidence that housing people in ex-military sites like RAF Wethersfield causes profound and long-lasting harm to their mental and physical health. These sites are extremely isolated, resemble prisons with barbed wire and surveillance and lack privacy.”People forced to live there are often unable to access legal advice and other services. For individuals who have already survived conflict, persecution, torture and trafficking, being forced to live in such conditions compounds existing trauma and can have devastating consequences for their mental and physical health, including depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm.”The announcement comes ahead of Ms Mahmood’s Immigration and Asylum Bill, expected to be set out on Tuesday. It will restrict how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) can be used to prevent deportations by narrowing rules around families.The Modern Slavery Act will also be reformed to clamp down on last-ditch claims. And Ms Mahmood is expected to announce a new asylum tribunal process with tighter rules around appeals.Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Rather than making appeals harder, the Government needs to be addressing why so many initial decisions are found to be flawed.”The asylum hotels being closed are;Dayz Away Lodge – Dudley, West MidlandsHoliday Inn Ashford Central – Ashford, KentBest Western Atlantic – Chelmsford, EssexThe Cisswood – Horsham, SussexThe Collection Hotel – Edgbaston, BirminghamAdagio – Leicester, East MidlandsNorwich Hotel – Norwich, NorfolkAllerton Court – Northallerton, North YorkshireMercure George – Reading, BerkshireTLK Apartments – Bromley, Greater LondonBest Western Stoke – Stoke-on-Trent, StaffordshireThe Granby (1 The Hill) – Gravesham, KentHampton by Hilton – BristolDelta Hotel Cheshunt – Broxbourne, HertfordshireEpisode Leamington – Leamington Spa, WarwickshireOxford Witney Hotel – Oxford, OxfordshireShambrook – Bedford, BedfordshireBell hotel – Epping, EssexOYO Evesham hotel – Evesham, WorcestershireBest Western – Wembley, London
