NEARLY 1,000 asylum seekers are set to be housed in two army barracks from next month as the government tries to beat the migrant hotel crisis.
Plans will see the use of two barracks in Scotland and southern England that will temporarily house 900 men from next month.
The Home Office confirmed on Monday that the plans will see men housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex.
Both sites were used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere, with that work ending earlier this year.
Small boat arrivals will be sent to to the two sites by the end of next month with the Home Office hoping to house 10,000 migrants on military sites, say The Times.
The move comes as the Government aims to speed up the process of getting asylum seekers out of costly hotels, which a parliamentary committee branded “failed, chaotic and expensive” on Monday.
Giving Channel migrants less comfortable housing is viewed as a key deterrent in stopping record numbers of crossings.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“This Government will close every asylum hotel.
“Work is well under way, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.”
Other options being considered include military and industrial sites, temporary facilities and disused accommodation, and officials have been ordered to accelerate work identifying alternatives.
As of June this year, around 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, down from a peak of more than 56,000 in 2023 but 2,500 more than at the same point last year.
And expected costs of Home Office accommodation contracts for 2019-2029 have tripled from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, following what the Commons Home Affairs Committee called a “dramatic increase” in demand.
The Sun reported how billions has been wasted on migrant hotels owing to catastrophic mismanagement by the Home Office according to MPs.
On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “frustrated and angry” as he sought to blame the previous government for leaving a “huge mess” in the asylum system by failing to process people’s claims.
The use of the barracks is seen as temporary by the Home Office with other stop-gap locations being identified as alternatives to the asylum hotels.
But local communities must still be consulted before any migrants are place there and they are likely to put up a fight.
The Sun previously reported how army chiefs were put on standby to build migrant camps as part of a crackdown on illegal small boat Channel crossings.
Logistics teams with experience in building barracks in war zones were said to be working up plans to quickly open new facilities on government land.
In a bid to further ditch the “pull factors” luring migrants to Britain, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also ended the automatic rights of migrants granted asylum to bring their family.
We also reported on how one of Britain’s biggest migrant hotels had been temporarily cleared in September – but tax-payers are still on the hook for its upkeep.
In August, residents were quietly moved out of the 465-room Crowne Plaza, a former four-star airport hotel at West Drayton, near Heathrow.
Staffing levels also appeared to have been cut back and locals said they were relieved no one was there now.
