UNACCEPTABLE: Fury at plans to House Migrants in huge ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ bases
UNACCEPTABLE: Fury at plans to House Migrants in huge ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ bases
The ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ โs 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 ยฃ100 per person per night. It costs ยฃ145 per person per night in a hotel room.
And locals in Crowborough have been left furious by the plans.
โWe are worried about these people, how they are and what they doโฆ if theyโre putting the public at risk,โ said East Sussex resident Angela Coleman, 66. โYou donโt know what risk they pose, people wonโt be happy shopping amongst them. Everything is OK at the moment and all of a sudden weโve got an invasion.โ
Ms Coleman added that she understands the migrants โhave to be housed somewhere,โ but said โit wonโt be with open armsโ in Crowborough.
Long-time local Simon, 59, echoed those concerns, saying โthe government is in over its head.โ
โItโs going to be very difficult, and how they p0lice it when they put them there, thatโs the big thing,โ he told the Express. โYou canโt just drop people off and expect them to find their place. Itโs not ideal as a holding pen.โ
Crowborough resident Kelvin Lord, 60, added that โhaving a roof over your head is important for everyone.โ
โWe need to look after ourselves and each other. People should be willing to contribute to a system that works for themselves and everybody else,โ 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 โundocumented males will have a huge impact locally.โ
He told The Express: โPurely based off the governmentโs own figures, crime does go up and there seems to be s3xual assaultโฆ so the real risk is for women and children.โ
The army site is located next to a new housing estate, where homes are reportedly selling for up to ยฃ1.4 million.
โIf it were me buying one of these housesโฆ 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.โ
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: โThere are still more illegal immigrants in hotels today than there were at the election.
โThis 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.
โThe 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.
โLabour will never do this because Keir Starmer doesnโt 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 โsome of the military sites in use by the end of this yearโ.
He added: โI 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 Iโm bearing down on this every day of the week with the teams.
Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster said: โItโs 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.
โIts 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 โan issue of public confidenceโ.
The prime ministerโs spokesperson said: โThe costs will vary site by site, but our priorities are security and fairness.
โThis is an issue of public confidence. We know that communities donโt want asylum seekers housed in hotels, and neither does the government, and thatโs why we are determined to fix the mess that weโve inherited by getting a grip of the issue and committing to close every single asylum hotel, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.โ
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.
