UK Government could close asylum hotels next year with ‘one-off scheme’

The UK Government could close asylum hotels next year by allowing people from certain countries likely to be recognised as refugees temporary permission to stay under a “one-off scheme”, analysis by the Refugee Council has suggested.

The refugee charity has set out a time-limited proposal that ministers could take to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by March 2026.

It warned the Government’s commitment to close them by the end of this Parliament – 2029 – is “unsustainable, costly and risks fuelling further community division”.

Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court last week, stopping asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, following weeks of protests.

Legal action

More councils are now considering legal action to close asylum hotels in their areas, while the hotel owner Somani Hotels and the Home Office are seeking to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal on Thursday.

Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said the High Court ruling already proves the Government’s timeline is “no longer viable”.

He said: “A targeted, ‘one-off’ scheme focusing on cases from countries with high grant rates for asylum could end the use of hotels by 2026.

“As long as hotels remain open, they will continue to be flashpoints for far-right activity, fuelling tensions and driving communities apart.

“It is a failure of Government to keep people in a system that leaves them in limbo for months, at huge cost to the public purse.

“Through our frontline work we see how protests outside asylum hotels can terrify people who’ve already fled war in places like Sudan and Afghanistan.”

Temporary permission to stay

Under the proposal, asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan and Syria – who were already in the asylum system at the end of June this year, would be granted permission to stay in the UK temporarily, subject to security checks.

Refugee Council analysis of official figures released last week found that nearly 32,917 asylum seekers from these countries were housed by the Home Office by the end of June – higher than the 32,059 asylum seekers accommodated in UK hotels in the same period.

The charity said the scheme would allow the Government to close hotels entirely by focusing on this group, who already have high grant rates for refugee status or humanitarian protection, such as 98% for Sudanese and Syrians, 60% for Iranians and 87% for Eritreans.

Meanwhile, some 39% of Afghans accommodated were granted status, down from 96% the previous year after changes to the Home Office country guidance.

‘Hopeless’

One Afghan man, Muhammad – who was granted asylum after spending six months in a hotel earlier this year, said through the Refugee Council that people filming residents outside the hotel to use in a negative way makes asylum seekers “feel hopeless about the system”.

He added: “One of my friends has been in a hotel for more than two years – he is very talented, but the uncertainty is a mental disaster.

“Everyone knows about the risks in Afghanistan. People who worked for human rights, including rights for women and education for girls, risk losing their lives.”

The scheme would also follow initiatives taken by the previous Conservative government and Labour government following the 1997 general election, the organisation said.

In 2023, the Conservatives introduced a questionnaire to gather information for the Home Office to make a decision without requiring an interview to cut the backlog of asylum claims.

Under Labour between 1999 and 2000, nearly 30,000 grants of exceptional leave were made by ministers to tackle the backlog inherited following the election.

The Refugee Council is calling for the process for the scheme to be spread out over several months to allow those granted permission to stay time to secure a place to live and income.

It also suggested the Government builds on the Homes for Ukraine scheme and allow for people to be housed by members of their community while they look for longer-term accommodation.