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Home Office to Start Evicting Asylum Seekers From Hotels This Spring

The push coincides with a planned end to the automatic duty to support destitute claimants, tightening who qualifies for housing or payments.

Overview

  • Evictions will form part of a drive to accelerate hotel closures from the spring, with ministers maintaining a pledge to end hotel use by 2029.
  • The Home Secretary plans to replace the statutory duty to support destitute asylum seekers with a discretionary power restricting eligibility for accommodation and allowances.
  • Support removal would target people deemed able to support themselves, those with a right to work, individuals working illegally or who have broken the law, and those who ignore departure orders.
  • More than 36,000 people were in Home Office hotels in September, within a total of 111,651 receiving asylum support at that time.
  • Ministers intend to shift people into former barracks, HMOs, council-run pilots and temporary pop-up buildings, and to expand a one-in, one-out returns deal with France while pursuing a similar arrangement with Germany.