Asylum hotels latest: Number of migrants in hotels rises under Labour but deportations up by 25% – UK Times

The number of people returned from the UK has gone up by 25 per cent in the past year, with 9,100 enforced returns in the twelve months to July.

The majority of this was under the Labour government.

Migrants from Albania, Romania, Brazil and India have faced the highest number of enforced returns.

Voluntary returns are also up by 13 per cent.

Some 1,000 staff have been reallocated to immigration enforcement, which the Home Office notes may have boosted returns.

Home Office spending on asylum in the UK stood at £4.76 billion in 2024/25, down 12 per cent from a record £5.38 billion in 2023/24, Government figures show.

The total covers all Home Office costs related to asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation, plus wider staffing and other migration and borders activity.

It does not include costs relating to the interception of migrants who travel to the UK across the English Channel in small boats.

The figure for 2024/25, £4.76 billion, is more than three times the equivalent amount in 2020/21 (£1.34 billion) and is more than 10 times the total a decade ago in 2014/15 (£0.47 billion).

Labour have been making progress in slashing the asylum backlog, with the number of asylum claims awaiting a decision continuing to fall.

The total number waiting was 70,532 in June this year, down on more than 90,000 at the end of 2024.

The numbers waiting for more than 12 months for a decision are also falling significantly, although some 19,000 people are still in this position. Some 30,637 had been waiting for over a year on their asylum decision in September last year.

The number of asylum seekers in hotels has gone down very slightly from 32,345 in March this year, to 32,059 in June 2025.

Asylum seekers in other forms of accommodation has also dipped, with the number in dispersed accommodation going from 66,683 in March to 66,234 in June this year. There are a total of 106,075 people in receipt of asylum support, a fall of around 600 people in the past three months.

The number in hotels in June last year was 29,585 compared to 32,059 this year – a rise of 8 per cent. However the number in hotels has been falling since the end of last year.

Patrick Harley, Conservative leader of Dudley council, told The Independent that he had instructed the council’s legal team to seek an injunction against an asylum hotel in the borough.

He said: “For years now we have taken a robust approach to handling Serco and the Home Office in relation to the placement of asylum seekers in hotels. We have previously threatened legal action against both Serco and individuals.

“As a result we only have one hotel in the borough that has been commandeered by Serco for this use.”

He added: “I have instructed our legal team to seek a similar injunction against Serco and the Home Office in relation to what’s happened yesterday at Epping”.

Several local authorities, including some run by the Labour Party, said they were looking at their options to take similar action.

Carol Dean, leader of Labour-controlled Tamworth Council, said her authority had previously decided against legal action but was now “carefully assessing” what the decision might mean for the area, adding it was a “potentially important legal precedent”.

A spokesperson for Wirral Council, which has seen protests outside a hotel in Hoylake, said the authority was “considering the detail” of Tuesday’s judgment.

Other authorities have ruled out legal action, with the leader of Labour-run Newcastle City Council saying she was “confident” the council could end the use of hotels without going to court.

Karen Kilgour said: “We recognise that people seeking asylum include families, women, and children, many of whom have faced unimaginable trauma.

“Newcastle has a proud history of offering sanctuary, and we stand ready to play our part – but it must be done in a way that works for our city and supports the dignity and wellbeing of those who come here.”

The shadow home secretary has defended the Bibby Stockholm barge, as he suggested the government should move asylum seekers being housed in hotels to army barracks or modular accommodation.

When asked on Sky News what other options the government had following Epping Council’s legal win – with the Bibby Stockholm being highlighted as a failure – Chris Philp said: “I’m not sure I would say it didn’t work. It had some initial issues with I think its water system, but it did get up and running. That would have held 500 people so you could have actually added more of those barges.

“They’re used to accommodate works on oil and gas installations so they’re not prison ships they’re used for workers ordinarily. But Labour decommissioned that so that’s no longer an option.”

The Bibby Stockholm was a hugely controversial barge that was used to house asylum seekers from 2023-2024. It was plagued with problems, including a discovery of legionella bacteria in the water that forced the temporary evacuation of residents onboard.

An asylum seeker, Leonard Farruku, also took his own life on the barge in 2023, and other residents warned the site was unsafe and overcrowded.

Labour is bracing for a wave of legal action that could displace thousands of asylum seekers after councils across England signalled they could seek to ban hotels for migrants.

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The most recent Home Office data showed there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March.

This was down 15 per cent from the end of December, when the total was 38,079.

New figures – published among the usual quarterly immigration data release – are expected on Thursday, showing numbers in hotels at the end of June.

Figures for hotels published by the Home Office date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023 when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels.

Nigel Farage has called for peaceful protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers to put pressure on local authorities to take the same route as Epping Forest.

Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “Now the good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain.

“Wherever people are concerned about the threat posed by young undocumented males living in local hotels and who are free to walk their streets, they should follow the example of the town in Essex.

“Let’s hold peaceful protests outside the migrant hotels, and put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out; we now know that together we can win.”

The Reform UK leader has indicated that councils run by his party will consider their own legal challenges.