UNACCEPTABLE: Fury at plans to House Migrants in huge 𝘉𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘚𝘏 𝘈𝘙𝘔𝘠 bases

The 𝘉𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘚𝘏 𝘈𝘙𝘔𝘠’s biggest base is being reconsidered for asylum accommodation as Labour scrambles to close migrant hotels.

Catterick Garrison is on the table again after the plans were shelved under the Conservatives.

And Linton-on-Ouse, which had been earmarked to house 1,500 people in 2022, is being examined again.

It comes after the Home Office confirmed that two barracks in Scotland and southern England would be used to house about 900 asylum seekers.

The plans will see men housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex.

The two sites were used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere. That process ended earlier this year.

Government sources have said they want to house thousands of migrants on military sites, hinting it could in some cases be more expensive than keeping asylum seekers in hotels.

But they insisted this was necessary to restore public confidence.

Crowborough was previously ruled as unsuitable for asylum accommodation amid fears over how spread out the buildings are.

Sources said it would have been too expensive to convert it into facilities to house migrants. The Daily Express has been told it could cost over £100 per person per night. It costs £145 per person per night in a hotel room.

And locals in Crowborough have been left furious by the plans.

“We are worried about these people, how they are and what they do… if they’re putting the public at risk,” said East Sussex resident Angela Coleman, 66. “You don’t know what risk they pose, people won’t be happy shopping amongst them. Everything is OK at the moment and all of a sudden we’ve got an invasion.”

Ms Coleman added that she understands the migrants “have to be housed somewhere,” but said “it won’t be with open arms” in Crowborough.

Long-time local Simon, 59, echoed those concerns, saying “the government is in over its head.”

“It’s going to be very difficult, and how they p0lice it when they put them there, that’s the big thing,” he told the Express. “You can’t just drop people off and expect them to find their place. It’s not ideal as a holding pen.”

Crowborough resident Kelvin Lord, 60, added that “having a roof over your head is important for everyone.”

“We need to look after ourselves and each other. People should be willing to contribute to a system that works for themselves and everybody else,” he said.

Crowborough Training Camp includes barrack accommodation for up to 1,200 people, along with various firing ranges and training facilities. The Express understands that the facility was told to take no further bookings from October.

Michael Barrett, 38, Local Reform UK Branch Chairman for Sussex Weald, said the “undocumented males will have a huge impact locally.”

He told The Express: “Purely based off the government’s own figures, crime does go up and there seems to be s3xual assault… so the real risk is for women and children.”

The army site is located next to a new housing estate, where homes are reportedly selling for up to £1.4 million.

“If it were me buying one of these houses… I would be withdrawing my offer and trying to tear up any contracts as soon as possible. The footfall will be coming past these houses here.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “There are still more illegal immigrants in hotels today than there were at the election.

“This is because the first nine months of this year have been the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, and all Labour have delivered are gimmicks.

“The only way to close the hotels is to stop the crossings, and the only way to stop the crossings is to deport all illegal arrivals and have an actual deterrent in place.

“Labour will never do this because Keir Starmer doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to his human lawyer cronies and left-wing activists in his party.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he hopes he can get “some of the military sites in use by the end of this year”.

He added: “I want to see the asylum hotels closed down as quickly as possible. But we have got to process the claims and/or find alternative accommodation but I’m bearing down on this every day of the week with the teams.

Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster said: “It’s odd to not only see Labour now backtracking on what they said previously about the use of military sites, but their selection of Crowborough a site we rejected.

“Its layout was considered unsuitable and conversions costs too high. It smacks of Labour ministers picking a site for p0litical, not practical reasons.”

Downing Street indicated that some higher costs of moving asylum seekers from hotels into military sites would be worthwhile because the issue of where asylum seekers were housed had become “an issue of public confidence”.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The costs will vary site by site, but our priorities are security and fairness.

“This is an issue of public confidence. We know that communities don’t want asylum seekers housed in hotels, and neither does the government, and that’s why we are determined to fix the mess that we’ve inherited by getting a grip of the issue and committing to close every single asylum hotel, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.”

Sources who have served in the Ministry of Defence said they had drawn up a list of sites that could potentially be used for housing asylum seekers.

This included empty bases in remote parts of the country.

One example was a large site with lorries stored in it, but it was ruled out because it was too far from other public facilities.