Despite the government’s promised to end the use of hotels, the Refugee Council found that ‘the hotel population of people seeking asylum almost tripled over the course of 2021, with a staggering 26,380 people being accommodated in hotels across the UK at the end of 2021.’

The Refugee Council have reported on the impact of prolonged hotel stays on child development, and the damage caused to people’s health and wellbeing, including depression and suicidal ideation. There has also been a rise in deaths in asylum accommodation over the last two years, as well as reports that children are knowingly being placed in hotel accommodation with adults.

In Oxford, too, the use of emergency hotel accommodation for people seeking asylum has skyrocketed over the past year. In Oxford, we support a number of recently opened ‘contingency’ hotels, which mainly accommodate asylum seekers recently arrived in the UK.

Shockingly, unaccompanied asylum seeking children continue to go missing from hotel accommodation. Since July 2021, 4600 unaccompanied children have been placed in hotels. 440 of them have gone missing and 200 have never been found.

It currently costs taxpayers around £5 million a day to accommodate over 37,000 asylum claimants and Afghan refugees in hotels. As a result, the government has also announced they will be using repurposed military facilities the accommodate asylum claimants as a cheaper alternative to hotel accommodation. Despite the concerns raised about the use of Napier Barracks as an accommodation facility, six further ex-military bases have been earmarked to accommodate 30,000 asylum claimants. These will be semi-closed facilities, with residents expected to be onsite overnight. They will feature daily ID check, external and internal CCTV, a controlled access point and security perimeter patrols.