The current ‘crisis’ in the asylum accommodation system is a result of the failure of the Home Office to make timely decisions, recent reforms in the Nationality and Borders Act, and a lack of partnership working with local communities by the Home Office and its providers.
From 2021, as well as increased use of unsuitable hotel accommodation, the Government has sought to develop a national portfolio of large-scale asylum ‘accommodation centres’ in which to place people seeking asylum in the UK. Previous attempts to institute such centres have resulted in facilities best described as ‘quasi- detention’.
Our new briefing focuses on the harm caused by these segregated facilities and highlights how the current Clause 97 in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill threatens to exclude local communities from decisions over whether such facilities are placed in their communities.
You can read the briefing here.