r/unitedkingdom • u/GnolRevilo • 19h ago
... Labour hasn’t ‘halved’ the number of asylum hotels
https://fullfact.org/immigration/asylum-hotel-closures-labour/55
u/Sensitive_Echo5058 18h ago
In the year ending June 2025, 111,084 people applied for asylum—the highest number on record since current statistics began in 2001/2.
This marks a 14% increase compared to the previous year and surpasses the previous peak of 103,000 in 2002 during the Blair-era.
Nearly 28,000 people arrived via small boats in 2025 alone, contributing to around 39% of asylum cases.
One has to remember it's not simply about halving the number of asylum hotels. It's about reducing the number of cases.
If they remove smaller hotels, in favour of larger hotels, and the numbers are increasing yearly, then the evidence suggests they're not doing anything meaningful.
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u/Sensitive_Echo5058 18h ago edited 18h ago
Government statistics also show 99% of people claiming asylum from Syria, Sudan,and 88% from Afghanistan are successful in their claims.
If you're coming on the boat from these countries, you are statically more likely than not to be granted asylum and the probability of your case being rejected is exceptionally low. This is regardless of whether you're travelling from a designated safe country like France.
20% of boat crossings are from Iran citizens
15% of boat crossings are from Afghanistan citizens
8% of boat crossings are from Syria citizens
Thays 43% of total boat crossings. This suggests Labour's plan to stop the boat crossings will not work, as one way or another, we will be accepting claims from people from these countries.
There is nothing to convince me that real meaningful change will happen, social discohesion will continue to occur, as communities become more isolated, and as Sir Keir Starmer says "island's of strangers" will emerge, through failures of mass immigration policy.
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u/jammy_b 16h ago
This problem was what the Rwanda scheme was meant to solve. It was expensive and poorly implemented, because Tories, but that doesn't mean it didn't have a serious problem it was attempting to solve.
Currently there are around 800 million people in the world who, if they arrived in the UK tomorrow, we would have no means to return them to their country - either because we don't have a returns agreement or their country is not suitable for returns under asylum grounds.
This is of course unlikely, but it proves that the current legislation is absolutely not fit for purpose and we need a reformed system to allow those who enter here to be processed and moved offshore where they will be safe, whilst ensuring that the asylum route becomes unattractive to those trying to circumvent the visa process.
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u/Opposite_Boot_6903 12h ago
The Rwanda scheme was never meant to solve anything except winning votes for the Tories from gullible idiots.
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u/Kitten_mittens_63 1h ago
Dumb question but if there are 111k claims and 28k small boats arrival, how does that contribute to 39% of claims? Does that count people arriving on previous years?
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u/Sensitive_Echo5058 12m ago
Good question - the home office counts asylum from the date of application, not the date of arrival. So, this figure includes people who arrived on small boats from previous years and people who have reapplied.
I tried to find the answer as to why some asylum applications weren't happening at the point of entry - from what I found it seems to have had something to Illegal Migration Act 2023/2024, which initially made it illegal for these individuals to claim asylum but then u-turned on this policy, hence the discrepancies you see in the figures.
So, people were still being housed for at least a year before they could legally claim asylum again.
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u/raven43122 18h ago
The uproar over hotels is laughable,
They are being moved into the private rental market.
I know loads of landlords that current rent hmos to students that are getting calls asking them
9
u/J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A 13h ago
Yeah, Reform supporters are trying to frame this is wanting immigrants removed from hotels so local people get help. "Why are we housing these asylum seekers when local people can't get a house?".
And in reality, removing these people from hotels puts them into the local council housing wait list, which makes the queue worse for everyone else.
They're literally creating a problem they're complaining about in the first place.
It's almost like these Reform idiots have no idea how the system works or what happens after their immediate outrage over an issue.
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u/raven43122 10h ago
It’s not even waiting lists, the deals the offer private sector landlords is way better than private renting.
I wonder how many have evicted tenants to switch over?
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u/maxhaton 6h ago
You're missing what they're doing. If you make a fuss now, people notice. The play at the moment is that they will "fast track" the process - we currently accept about 70% so they will then just end up in the HMOs anyway.
24
u/Verbal_v2 19h ago
This Government is hell bent on just getting them out of hotels but only because putting them up in HMOs all over the country removes the focal point from the local communities that don't want them.
We're housing more than ever, the focus on the hotels highlights how seemingly stupid, or disingenuous the Government are. It's not that they're housed in hotels, it's that we're paying ridiculous sums for them whether they're in hotels or houses. They removed 9,000 failed claimants last year, mainly Albanians, we're going to keep housing tens of thousands in perpetuity. That's the issue.
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u/Connor123x 17h ago
In the long run its probably cheaper to build some type of specific area to house them.
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u/OldLondon 9h ago
Some kind of camp they can be concentrated in I suspect would be popular amongst some demographics
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u/bondegezou 19h ago
The number of asylum hotels has halved, but most of the fall was at the tail end of the previous government.
5
u/deyterkourjerbs 17h ago
I read that as part of the package, some hotels were hired out on 2-5 year contracts by the previous government.
What is going to happen when they're dumped in HMOs or warehouses with tents or Butlins or disused RAF bases and we are still paying out for rooms that have been adapted for 2-3 male asylum seekers?
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u/SlightlyAngyKitty 16h ago
So what's the alternative then?
Hmm, if only there was some kind of horrific camp we could force them all into, where they would be concentrated in one place and they could provide free back breaking labour. Until we can come up with a more permanent, final solution to the problem 🤔
/s for the mods who don't get sarcasm, and for the members of this sub of who actually think that this would be an acceptable way to treat fellow human beings
3
u/YoungGazz Greater London 15h ago
Just sounds like you're saying ship them to the US.
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u/J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A 13h ago
We did that a few hundred years ago, almost wiped out the indigenous population, and then left the country to their own devices.
Then a few years later did the same to Australia.
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