The Home Secretary defended the decision to move migrants into the Crowborough Training Camp last week, insisting it will help the Home Office close hotels.
Protesters descended on Crowborough (Image: Getty)
Labour’s plans to convert military bases into asylum accommodation will spark more anger and protests, Shabana Mahmood has admitted. The Home Secretary defended the decision to move migrants into the Crowborough Training Camp last week, insisting it will help the Home Office close hotels.
And Ms Mahmood has vowed to convert more Army bases into asylum accommodation, despite growing fears from locals over their suitability. Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Crowborough on Sunday, warning of an increase in crime and fears over women’s safety – and Ms Mahmood warned she expected more protests to come.
She said: “I do understand the strength of feeling amongst residents in Crowborough and I know that as we expand the use of military sites, we will see similar issues elsewhere.”
However, she explained that they have to do this “because the policy that we inherited of housing asylum seekers in asylum hotels was the wrong thing”.
She added: “And that has also caused huge strife across communities in the country.”
She told LBC: “I do understand, but we do have to find a solution. I think moving to larger sites, rather than hotels on high streets and rooted in local communities, I think military sites presents a better solution.
“I think it deals with one of the pull factors. We know that organised immigration criminals are advertising the fact that you get a hotel room when you arrive in Britain as one of the ways that they’re luring people into the small boats in the first place.”
She added: “There are no easy answers here and there is no one silver bullet. I wish that there were, that I could implement and make these problems go away overnight. But we will get out of asylum hotels.
“We do need a solution for housing asylum seekers and I do think military sites presents a good solution going forward. Of course, the main job is dealing with the boats, which I’m also trying to do.”
Some 27 small boat arrivals were bussed into the Crowborough Training Camp in the early hours of Thursday morning despite local opposition.
More than 500 migrants will eventually be held in Crowborough. The Home Office insists “robust safety and public protection safeguards are in place”, with 24/7 security.
A 16-seater coach, with a police escort, was driven onto the camp in persistent rain just before 3.30am today.
Sources said they will only be housed there for up to three months while their asylum claims are processed.
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to close every migrant hotel by 2029, with so-called large sites a key part of Labour’s plan to do so.
But residents claim the area around Crowborough barracks lacks the infrastructure and facilities to cope with an influx of hundreds of male migrants, who will be free to come and go from the base.
Some 36,273 are staying in taxpayer-funded hotel rooms, a 13% rise compared to June’s figure of 32,041, while 66,232 are living in communities across Britain.
And Ms Mahmood defended bussing 27 migrants into Crowborough under the cover of darkness.
She said: “It was just designed to make sure that, of course, that there wasn’t a public order risk and also that we could move people safely and quickly.
“Whenever you move into any new part of an estate, you have to start small and, and it is normal practise to do these things.”
Hundreds of migrants could also be housed at Cameron Barracks in Inverness, Scotland, despite similar concerns in the community.
