Fact check: Hotel accommodation for asylum seekers aims to be temporary measure

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth claimed on the BBC’s Newsnight programme on June 24 that asylum seekers come to the UK and stay in hotels for “the rest of their lives”.

Evaluation

Many asylum seekers in the UK are accommodated in hotels because of the shortage of alternative housing.

However, the Home Office says the use of hotels is a “short-term measure”, and asylum seekers usually lose access to accommodation support when their claim for asylum, and any subsequent appeal, is rejected.

The facts

In an interview on the BBC’s Newsnight programme on June 24, Mr Ashworth, Labour’s shadow paymaster general, said migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats would know that the Conservatives’ Rwanda scheme would only apply to 1% of arrivals, and “the rest stay in a hotel for the rest of their lives”.

Asylum seekers and their dependants who are waiting for their claim to be assessed, or who are appealing against a rejected application, are eligible for Section 95 support. This includes the provision of accommodation, if they would otherwise be destitute.

Because the usual asylum accommodation capacity has been exceeded, the Home Office has had to increasingly rely on leasing hotel rooms. In March 2023, according to a Commons Library report, around 42% of people in receipt of asylum support were in hotel accommodation – 47,500 people in total.

But Home Office guidance says that it “has always been clear that use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure to ensure that we met our statutory obligation to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.”

Figures from the Refugee Council in 2022 showed that while 2,826 refugees had been in temporary accommodation for more than six months, there were 378 living in this type of housing for a year – an 87% decrease.

Section 95 support is usually ended once an asylum seeker has their application (and any appeal) refused or they withdraw it. If they have a dependent child, they can continue to receive support until the dependant’s 18th birthday.

If refugee status is granted to someone living in asylum support accommodation, they will usually need to move out 28 days after getting their asylum decision. They will have gained permission to apply for benefits or seek work in the UK.

Links

X: BBC Newsnight – Jonathan Ashworth discusses Labour asylum policy (archived)

Gov.uk – Asylum support application: help and guidance (archived)

Gov.uk – Ceasing Section 95 Support instruction (archived)

Gov.uk – Asylum hotel summary and FAQ (archived)

legislation.gov.uk – Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, section 95 (archived)

legislation.gov.uk – Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, section 96 (archived)

House of Commons Library – Asylum accommodation: hotels, vessels and large-scale sites (archived)

Refugee Council – Number of people seeking asylum trapped languishing in hotels almost trebles in a year (archived)

Granting of refugee status (archived)