Asylum: Hotels

(asked on 20th December 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers on local businesses in the (a) hospitality, (b) tourism and (c) entertainment sectors in (i) the UK, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) Birmingham.


Answered by
Robert Jenrick Portrait
Robert Jenrick
This question was answered on 13th January 2023

For several years, record numbers of people cross the Channel in small boats, and this surge has placed the Home Office’s asylum support infrastructure and accommodation services under immense pressure. In order to meet our statutory obligations to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, we have been forced to temporarily house asylum seekers in hotels. The use of hotels is a short term solution and we are working hard with Local Authorities and our accommodation providers to find more appropriate accommodation.

We continue to work collaboratively with Local Authorities through the establishment of multi-agency forums to understand and address operational impacts on local areas. These regular forums include all key stakeholders and have been developed to mitigate and assure the on-going services provision within a local area.

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