Asylum seeker housing: what's the solution?

Evening Standard

Hundreds of asylum seekers are to be moved to military sites as the Government aims to end the use of hotels to house small boat migrants.However, defence minister Luke Pollard admitted that using military sites could cost the taxpayer more than asylum hotels.

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00:00Hundreds of asylum seekers are to be moved from hotels to military sites, which will

00:04cost the taxpayer more.

00:06The government has found an alternative solution to housing migrants, due to public demand

00:10for migrant hotels to be closed.

00:12The Home Office has now confirmed around 900 men will be housed in temporary accommodation

00:17in military barracks across Scotland and southern England.

00:21Defence Minister Luke Pollard has admitted that this will cost the taxpayer more, however

00:25it is justified due to the strong public demand.

00:27I think it's right that we reflect that public concern around asylum hotels and look

00:33at where the military bases can be used.

00:35The Ministry of Defence is working to find more disused sites as the Home Office hopes

00:39to house up to 10,000 migrants on these military sites.

00:43But is this a long-term solution or a short-term fix?

00:46Specialist in international refugee law Daniel Soge told The Standard that community support

00:51schemes could be far more cost effective.

00:54They ensure that migrants can stay in houses with other people and provide

00:57a better standard of living.

00:59Another solution could be providing the right to work for asylum seekers.

01:03Soge says if you provide people with the ability to support themselves, you therefore will

01:07reduce the reliance upon accommodation like hotels, which helps the whole system.

01:12However, we aren't seeing these solutions explored by this or the previous government.

01:16Right now, the government's next move is to end the use of asylum hotels completely,

01:20with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood prioritising alternative large sites to house asylum seekers.

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