Migrants will start being evicted from asylum hotels as soon as this spring after years of accommodation chaos.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to scrap the Government’s automatic legal obligation to house destitute asylum seekers.
The change will allow her to withdraw accommodation and weekly payments from certain migrants, a Home Office source told the i paper.
Those who can financially support themselves but choose not to will also be targeted – while migrants with the right to work will also face losing their support.
The reforms have been billed as Denmark-style measures aimed at tackling the Channel crisis.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised the public will see “evidence” of progress in the coming months.
But around 32,000 asylum seekers were still living in 200 hotels at the end of last year.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 people in asylum accommodation currently have the right to work due to their visa status.
A further 9,000 have gained work rights after waiting more than 12 months for their asylum claim to be processed.
Migrants will start being evicted from asylum hotels as soon as this spring
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PA
All these individuals could have their support withdrawn.
Those who break the law, refuse removal orders, or have sufficient funds to look after themselves will also be affected.
The policy covers the entire UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as immigration powers are not devolved.
Ministers are also said to be planning to restart removals to Syria – now considered safer after the fall of the Assad regime.
But as the hotels close, migrants could soon be turfed out to Britain’s residential streets – either in council houses or controversial houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) – in what has been dubbed “Operation Scatter” in the past.
Military barracks are also said to be in the running to house the evicted migrants.
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Shabana Mahmood is set to scrap the Government’s automatic legal obligation to house destitute asylum seekers
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PAOne senior MP predicted “big movement” on hotels in “the next couple of months”, telling the i: “Those Labour MPs who have hotels [in their constituencies] are piling on the pressure here.”
Chris Webb, MP for Blackpool South, urged the Government to prioritise deprived areas for the first wave of closures.
“We are now at breaking point,” he said, lamnenting how a hotel in his seat had taken a “huge” toll on local services since 2021.
Mansfield MP Steve Yemm called for “tangible” progress on border security including “faster, more reliable returns to safe countries, including strengthened co-operation with France and ramped-up agreements with countries such as Pakistan”.
Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, confirmed that Denmark became less attractive to migrants after introducing similar reforms.
“There is some evidence that when people are choosing between countries, these kinds of policies could have an impact not necessarily a transformative impact, but they can have some impact,” she said.
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GB NEWS
However, she warned the approach would only work if asylum seekers are actively choosing the UK over other EU nations.
She also cautioned that clearing hotels would require tackling the “big challenge” of reducing the asylum appeals backlog.
A Labour source said: “The Home Secretary is a woman in a hurry. She is working tirelessly to introduce these reforms to restore order and control to our borders.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “This Government is ending the duty to provide taxpayer-funded support to migrants who are able to support themselves or who break the law.
“Those with income or assets will now be required to contribute towards the cost of their stay and we are considering whether to remove benefits entirely from those who do not make an economic contribution.”