Former military bases are a grim way to welcome asylum seekers – let’s find alternatives
4 min read
In our 2024 manifesto, we pledged to close the so-called “asylum hotels” used to accommodate people seeking asylum.
The government is making good on that pledge: the number of hotels has fallen steadily, from around 400 in 2023 to fewer than 160 today. This has happened alongside a significant reduction in pressure on the asylum system. In the year ending June 2026, asylum applications fell by 21 per cent to 86,000. Small-boat arrivals were 23 per cent lower than in the previous year, while in the year ending July 2026 there were 12,412 asylum-related returns – the highest number recorded in a comparable recent period. Nevertheless, the sight of small boats arriving on UK shores, dangerously overloaded with people, remains deeply concerning.
The question of where people seeking asylum should be accommodated has generated considerable political heat. Nowhere has this been more apparent than around proposals to use redundant military sites in Oxfordshire and Suffolk, close to small rural communities.
There have been protests – noisy and generally peaceful, though regrettably not always – by local, and sometimes not so local, opponents of this approach. In Piddington, a symbolic referendum on seceding from the UK was even held as a way of expressing local opposition. A similar referendum has been contemplated in Barnham.
I share the concerns of many people about the Barnham proposal. I do not believe that former military bases are likely to be appropriate places to accommodate people seeking asylum.
I have visited Wethersfield in Essex and military accommodation in Denmark as part of a visit by the Home Affairs Select Committee. My impression was of places that were bleak and institutional, reminiscent of wartime detention camps. That is particularly troubling because many of the people accommodated in such places have fled war and persecution in deeply traumatic circumstances.
Some will ultimately be refused asylum, but many will be found to have genuine claims.
However committed and compassionate the staff running these sites may be, my concern is that military bases offer a grim welcome to people arriving in Britain deserving of safety.
There is a different way of thinking about what a welcome to Britain might look like. In Paddington, Mrs Brown tells the bear, himself a newly arrived refugee, that in London “everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in”.
In our larger and more diverse cities, one alternative approach to accommodation that I think merits consideration is the conversion of redundant office buildings. On York Road, next to Waterloo Station and just across Westminster Bridge from the Houses of Parliament, for example, stands a huge office building that has been empty for years.
There is a different way of thinking about what a welcome to Britain might look like
The proposal to accommodate around 1,250 men, predominantly from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, close to a rural Suffolk village of around 600 people has understandably generated local concern. The people of Suffolk are kind. They are willing to play their part in helping those in need. But for many, it is the sheer concentration of people close to a very small community that worries them.
That is why, in rural communities, I believe we should also consider a community sponsorship model. The Home Secretary set out the government’s plans at Labour Conference: applications from charities and non-profit organisations to sponsor refugees through new safe and legal routes will open in October, with the first arrivals expected in autumn 2027. The intention is for local communities to host refugees, with communities ready and able to support those who arrive.
There is a precedent. The response to the war in Ukraine demonstrated the willingness of individuals and communities across Britain, including here in Suffolk, to open their homes and support people seeking safety. A similar principle could have a role to play in refugee resettlement more broadly, particularly where the alternative is concentrating large numbers of people in isolated sites.
The challenge is to find arrangements that are fair to the communities receiving people, fair to those seeking sanctuary, and capable of commanding public confidence. There is an opportunity now to put our heads together and find better ways of doing that.
Peter Prinsley is Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
