Refugee organisations have described government plans to house thousands of asylum seekers in two disused military sites as fanciful and too expensive, as local discontent grows. The Home Office has confirmed that Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough training camp in East Sussex will be used to temporarily house about 900 men, with officials working to identify more sites.
The two sites previously accommodated Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021, a process that ended earlier this year. Officials say the 900 will be the first of as many as 10,000 people the Home Office hopes to house on military sites as it works with the Ministry of Defence to find several more disused locations.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said plans to house such large numbers in barracks were tried by the last government and failed. 'The plans released overnight by the Home Office to house 10,000 people seeking asylum on military sites are fanciful, too expensive and too logistically difficult,' he said. He suggested a one-off scheme granting limited permission to stay for people from countries almost certain to be recognised as refugees could end the use of hotels without resorting to camps.
Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, said Labour was breaking its promise to end the use of barracks to house refugees, exposing the taxpayer to soaring costs. He noted that the National Audit Office had outlined that such sites cost more than the hotels they seek to replace when setup costs are included.
Highland Council has accused the UK government of failing to consider the local impact of moving hundreds of asylum seekers to barracks in the centre of Inverness. A joint statement from the council's convener, Bill Lobban, its SNP leader, Raymond Bremner, and the opposition leader, Alasdair Christie, said: 'Our main concern is the impact this proposal will have on community cohesion given the scale of the proposals as they currently stand.'
Downing Street indicated that higher costs would be worthwhile because the issue of where asylum seekers were housed had become 'an issue of public confidence'. The prime minister's spokesperson said: 'The costs will vary site by site, but our priorities are security and fairness. This is an issue of public confidence.' As of June this year, about 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, down from a peak of more than 56,000 in 2023.
