seeker

Where to house asylum seekers has become one of the fiercest topics of political debate since last year’s general election.

Small boat crossings have reached near-record levels and MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee said the Home Office had squandered billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on asylum accommodation.

The estimated cost of the government’s 10-year asylum accommodation contracts has more than tripled, from £4.5bn to £15.3bn.

Ministers inside the Home Office believe that ultimately this issue can only be solved by increasing removals of failed asylum seekers and deterring people from arriving on small boats in the first place.

But while they attempt to implement policies to achieve those aims, the Home Office still has to find somewhere for the tens of thousands of people seeking asylum to stay.

When people arrive in the UK by crossing the Channel on small boats, they are generally sent to a processing centre at Manston in Kent.

The site is located on the former RAF Manston base and was opened by the Home Office in February 2022 as a response to the increasing number of arrivals.

Migrants are supposed to be held there for 24 hours, while officials carry out security and identity checks, but overcrowding has sometimes led to people being forced to stay on the site for weeks.

In late 2022, thousands of migrants were placed in tents at Manston, leading to overcrowding and disease, including diphtheria.

A Home Office inquiry is currently taking place into the conditions at Manston.

The department is also seeking planning approval to improve the site and use it for processing asylum seekers into the 2030s.

After leaving Manston, asylum seekers are then sent to initial accommodation provided by the Home Office, while officials decide whether they are eligible for further support.

These are supposed to be centres managed by specialist migrant help staff, but many asylum seekers are instead sent to hotels or hostels straight away.

There are 1,750 places available in initial accommodation and the latest government data showed 1,665 of those places were occupied in June.

Most asylum seekers will then be sent to longer-term accommodation, where they will stay while their asylum claim is being processed.

Under the contracts signed by the Home Office, asylum seekers are supposed to be housed in so-called dispersal accommodation.

These are self-catered properties within communities and are usually local flats or houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), a type of rented accommodation where at least three individuals share the use of a bathroom and kitchen.

The average cost of housing an asylum seeker in dispersal accommodation is £23.25 a night, making it by far the cheapest option.

In 2019, the government signed 10-year contracts with three companies – Serco, Mears and Clearsprings – and tasked them with finding properties that can be used for dispersal accommodation.

But since the number of small boat crossings began to rise significantly in 2022, there’s been a shortage of this type of accommodation.

Finding more of these properties became a big priority for the former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and the latest government data shows that 66,234 people were in dispersal accommodation in June – around two-thirds of the total number of asylum seekers being housed.

But the three companies tasked with finding these properties can make bigger profits from other types of accommodation – and the contracts drawn up by the Home Office don’t include any penalties for the companies when they fail to hit their targets.

Dispersal accommodation can impact local housing markets by effectively taking flats or HMOs out of general supply, something the Home Office acknowledges would cause frustrations within communities.

Some concerns have been raised that protests targeting this type of accommodation could be difficult to police.

Hotels were only ever meant to be used as a stop-gap option when there was a temporary shortage of other accommodation.

But increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has meant hotels have become a regular, expensive and highly controversial feature of the UK’s asylum accommodation system.

They have led to soaring costs for the taxpayer and large profits for the three companies providing the accommodation.

The average cost of housing an asylum seeker in a hotel is £144.98 a night, more than six times the price of dispersal accommodation.

One of the reasons hotels are so much more expensive than other accommodation is because the asylum seekers being housed there are also given food.

Under the contracts drawn up by the Home Office, providers are still paid even if the rooms are vacant.

Asylum hotel use peaked under the Conservatives in September 2023 when 56,042 people were being housed.

Latest government statistics show there were 32,059 asylum seekers being housed in hotels at the end of June – much lower than the peak, but 8% higher than when Labour came to power.

The Home Office removed the need to consult local authorities about hotel use in 2020 and they’ve become lightning rods for protests.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029, but achieving that target will be a tough ask.

Both Conservative and Labour governments have experimented with using larger sites to house asylum seekers.

Hundreds of asylum seekers could be placed in disused military sites, as part of efforts to achieve the prime minister’s pledge to end hotel use.

Ministers hope to move asylum seekers into sites in Inverness and East Sussex by the end of next month, with discussions between the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence ongoing about other potential locations.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has said that large sites such as these will not enable the government to drive down costs of asylum accommodation.

The idea is also likely to be highly controversial in the local communities where the sites are chosen, but the Home Office hopes that military sites could act as a deterrent to people thinking of crossing the Channel.

Disused military land has in the past been earmarked for housebuilding, but plans to build on these sites have repeatedly gone awry.

The government has indicated that other disused sites such as empty tower blocks, student accommodation and industrial sites could also be used to house asylum seekers.

The government’s contracts with Serco, Mears and Clearsprings run until 2029, but have break clauses which the government could trigger in March next year.

Home Office ministers wanted to trigger break clauses in the previous set of contracts, but the department hadn’t left itself enough time to plan for an alternative accommodation system.

The housing department has been working with local councils to explore what that alternative system could look like.

But some within the Home Office do not believe that an alternative would be ready by March and as recently as May, it was understood that there was no plan to trigger the break clauses next year.

The Home Office needs to save £1bn from the cost of asylum accommodation by 2029, otherwise it may have to find cuts in other areas of its budget.

Police have launched a manhunt after a former asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was mistakenly released from prison.

Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the attack in Epping, Essex, last month.

Prison sources said Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre ahead of a planned deportation. An investigation has been launched by the Prison Service, and an officer has been removed from discharging duties while it takes place.

Essex Police said “fast-paced enquiries have shown that the man boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford Railway Station at 12:41 BST”.

Justice Secretary David Lammy said he was “appalled at the release in error at HMP Chelmsford”.

Speaking to the media, Lammy said Essex Police, the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police were working together on the case and conducting a joint manhunt.

“All hands are on deck… to use all intelligence to get him out of this country,” he said.

Lammy said he was “livid on behalf of the public” about the accidental release of the sex offender and former asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu”.

He confirmed Kebatu had boarded a train at about lunchtime and was “at large in London”. He also said a prison officer had been suspended.

A “full and immediate investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the release has been launched. He said the situation was “very serious”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Kebatu “must be caught and deported for his crimes”.

Kebatu’s arrest had sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss the teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments on 7 July.

The following day, he encountered the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him create a CV to find work.

In September, after being found guilty of five offences, he was sentenced to 12 months and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female.

During the trial, Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, but court records suggested he was 41.

He was also made to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford.

“Public protection is our top priority, and we have launched an investigation into this incident.”

A spokesperson for Essex Police said it was informed by the prison services about “an error” to do with “the release of an individual” at 12:57.

“As a result of that, we have launched a search operation to locate them and are working closely with partner agencies,” they added.

“These fast-paced enquiries have shown that the man boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford Railway Station at 12:41.

“We understand the concern the public would have regarding this situation and can assure you we have officers working to urgently locate and detain him.”

Writing in a post on X, Lammy said: “We are urgently working with the police to track him down, and I’ve ordered an urgent investigation.

“Kebatu must be deported for his crimes, not on our streets.”

Sir Keir said the mistaken release was “totally unacceptable”.

Writing on X, he added: “I am appalled that it has happened, and it’s being investigated.

“The police are working urgently to track him down, and my government is supporting them. This man must be caught and deported for his crimes.”

Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a rapid public inquiry into how the mistaken release, first reported by The Sun, happened.

“This is utterly unacceptable and has potentially put my constituents in danger,” she said. “I expect answers from the Prison Service.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the “entire system is collapsing under Labour”.

“Conservatives voted against Labour’s prisoner release program because it was putting predators back on our streets,” she said on X.

“But this man has only just been convicted. A level of incompetence that beggars belief.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”