Home Office Booking ‘Large Number of Empty Beds’ in Hotels, MPs Told

A coach with migrants onboard, leaves Manston immigration short-term holding facility in Manston, Kent, on July 10, 2023. PA

The Home Office is booking thousands of empty hotel beds for illegal immigrants to avoid any overcrowding at processing centres, MPs have been told.

Home Office Second Permanent Secretary Simon Ridley told the public accounts committee on Monday they were trying to keep a “buffer” of 5,000 beds at hotels around the country in case there is an influx of small boat crossings in the English Channel.

Last year the Manston processing centre in Kent became extremely overcrowded and was at one point accommodating 4,000 illegal immigrants.

In November 2022 pro-immigration campaigners threatened legal action against Home Secretary Suella Braverman over conditions at the facility.

The Home Office reacted to the crisis by booking large numbers of hotel rooms around the country and redistributing the asylum seekers from Manston.

This week Mr. Ridley, referring to Manston, said, “We’re making sure we’ve got a buffer that is close to 5,000 beds … so we’re carrying a large number of empty beds in order to let us move people out there.”

The Daily Telegraph estimated the cost of the empty hotel beds as running at £500,000 a day.

Mr. Ridley said, “We have got excess beds that we are paying for that we can move people into immediately.”

‘We Have to Have a Buffer’

Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft said: “We have to have a buffer somewhere because if we don’t, we know what happens, we have people for more than 24 hours in Manston.”

“I hope the committee would support the suggestion of having a buffer, can have an argument about how big the buffer should be,” added Mr. Rycroft.

Ms. Braverman had proposed using barges and converted military bases, like the former RAF Wethersfield in Essex, to house illegal immigrants and reduce the £6 million a day the Home Office is spending on hotels.

Last year 45,755 illegal immigrants arrived in England by small boats across the English Channel and so far this year the number stands at 12,772.

1,339 Migrants Have Arrived in Past 3 Days

But good weather and calmer seas in the English Channel tend to boost the numbers and in the past three days, 1,339 migrants have made the crossing.

Asked by one MP whether there was a target date for when the Home Office would phase out the use of hotels, Mr. Rycroft said: “We haven’t got a date. We have deliberately not. The reason for that is that there are too many variables, too many factors and any assessment would be out of date … We have got a date by which we think the total will peak and start to come down. It’s still going up at the moment.”

He said they were determined to reduce their reliance on hotels, saying they were “not ideal accommodation” and “nor are they ideal for the taxpayer.”

Mr. Rycroft insisted the Home Office was “on track” to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s target of cutting the backlog of asylum applications being processed by the end of the year.

Abi Tierney, the Home Office’s head of passports, visas and immigration, said the Home Office was confident it would have 2,500 new caseworkers by September and said this should speed up asylum application decisions.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We always knew that, as we move into the summer months, crossings will escalate. We are continuing to stop significant numbers of crossings.”

“I still believe that you are more likely to be stopped and turned back than to make the crossing, and that’s because of the work with our French counterparts and the extra support that we have put in,” he added.

“But clearly the numbers making the journeys are still too large and that’s why we need the other elements of our ‘stop the boats’ package,” he said.

PA Media contributed to this report.