Asylum seeker centre plan for ex-North Yorkshire RAF base back on

It comes as part of a Government effort to reduce the use of hotels as accommodation and use more military barracks.

The base, located in the village of Linton-on-Ouse, was previously considered in 2022, but the controversial plan to house 1,500 asylum seekers there was abandoned following local opposition and a legal challenge from the council.

The protests in Linton-on-Ouse against previous plans, which were dropped in August 2022 (Image: Pic supplied)

In a story published by The Press in November last year, a Conservative North Yorkshire councillor said any potential move to house asylum seekers there would be resisted in the “strongest possible terms.”

The new proposal also involves using Ministry of Defence sites in Bicester in Oxfordshire and Barnham in Suffolk which in total would house 3,750 asylum seekers.

The Government is also looking to extend the use of existing sites in Crowborough, East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex) beyond 2027.

The initiative comes in the wake of a significant decrease in the number of asylum seekers temporarily housed in UK hotels.

According to Home Office figures published last month, the number stood at 20,885, marking a 35 per cent drop from the previous year.

At its peak, in September 2023, the number of asylum seekers in hotels was as high as 56,018.

‘This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done’

The issue of housing asylum seekers in hotels became controversial last year, sparking protests outside some sites.

Today, the Home Office announced the closure of 20 more hotels that were previously used to house asylum seekers.

This move is part of a broader strategy to shift from using hotels to former military sites for accommodating asylum seekers.

Labour has pledged to halt the use of asylum hotels by the next election.

Border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said: “We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities, and that is exactly what we are doing.

“Twenty more hotels have closed, and hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak.

“Instead, we’re moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with.

“This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done.”

The news of these plans comes ahead of fresh immigration reforms set to be introduced to Parliament next week.

The Refugee Council’s Imran Hussain said: “Moving refugees from unsuitable hotels to unsuitable former military sites is storing up problems for the next prime minister by repeating policies that failed in the recent past. It would be wise to rethink this approach.”