UK starts housing migrants in barracks as Starmer ends hotel use

Small boat migrants will begin being housed in two army barracks in November, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer intensifies efforts to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers within a year.

The facilities include Cameron Barracks in Inverness and the Crowborough training camp in East Sussex, The Times reports, citing Home Office sources.

About 900 migrants will be accommodated at the two sites by the end of November.

They are the first of up to 10,000 people the Home Office plans to move into military facilities while working with the Ministry of Defence to identify more disused sites.

Some locations are expected to feature modular, pre-fabricated housing similar to Portakabins.

Officials say the use of military sites will be temporary and is intended to reduce costs and dependence on hotels, which are considered unsuitable and too expensive.

The government also believes that housing migrants in barracks will act as a deterrent to Channel crossings.

Starmer has privately urged ministers to phase out asylum hotels within a year, accelerating his earlier target of 2029.

On October 27, he said he was “frustrated and angry” over the rising costs of the asylum system after a parliamentary inquiry found that Home Office mismanagement had “squandered” billions on hotel housing.

Despite the criticism, the Home Office has already started tendering new accommodation contracts that will run from 2029 to 2036, with a possible extension to 2039.

The opening of the first military sites marks the initial step toward relocating 32,000 migrants from hotels.

About 300 will move into the 140-year-old Cameron Barracks, previously used to house Afghans evacuated from Kabul, while the Crowborough camp on the edge of Ashdown Forest will take around 600.

A Home Office spokesperson confirmed that both sites will be operational by the end of November.

By Jeyhun Aghazada