Hundreds of asylum seekers are set to be relocated to military barracks as the government pushes to phase out the use of hotels for housing migrants.
The Home Office confirmed that Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex and Cameron Barracks in Inverness will temporarily accommodate around 900 men as part of the new strategy. Migrants arriving on small boats are expected to begin moving into the facilities by the end of next month.
Officials are also collaborating with the Ministry of Defence to identify other disused military sites that can be repurposed in the coming months.
The government is additionally planning to install modular housing units—previously used to relieve prison overcrowding—on some of the selected sites to increase capacity swiftly.
The move comes as the Labour government intensifies efforts to end the controversial reliance on asylum hotels. A recent parliamentary committee report described the use of hotels as “failed, chaotic and expensive”, accusing the Home Office of wasting billions due to mismanagement. However, the same report warned that converting military sites could prove even costlier and carry safety and legal concerns, along with facing strong local resistance.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels. This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well under way, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.”
Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels by 2029, though Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has reportedly told ministers he wants the practice ended within a year. He has expressed that he is “frustrated and angry” about the “mess” inherited by his government regarding asylum management.
Both the Crowborough and Inverness sites previously hosted Afghan families evacuated during the 2021 withdrawal from Kabul, with those families since resettled elsewhere. The Inverness site will house around 300 asylum seekers, while the East Sussex facility will accommodate approximately 600.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed stated that the government is exploring “modular” construction methods to ensure that new sites can be developed quickly, reinforcing Labour’s goal of ending the use of hotels “entirely.”
Similar pop-up cabins are already being used to increase capacity at RAF Wethersfield in Essex, the Home Office’s largest asylum accommodation site. Earlier proposals to expand RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire were scrapped following Labour’s election victory.
Construction firm Portakabin has also confirmed its willingness to collaborate with the Home Office to supply emergency prefabricated housing for asylum seekers.
As of June, approximately 32,000 asylum seekers were residing in hotels—down from a peak of 56,000 in 2023 but still 2,500 more than the same time last year. The expected cost of Home Office accommodation contracts between 2019 and 2029 has tripled from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, which the Commons Home Affairs Committee attributed to a “dramatic increase” in demand.
Earlier this month, the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats in 2025 surpassed the total recorded for the whole of 2024, underscoring the ongoing pressure on the UK’s asylum system.
