Military sites could be used to house asylum seekers temporarily, Defence Secretary says

Military sites could be utilised to hold asylum seekers, Defence Secretary John Healey has said, while the Government looks to shut down asylum hotels before 2029.

Mr Healey said that military planners were surveying feasible sites for housing on defence bases.

His comments come amid reports that new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who replaced Yvette Cooper in Sir Keir Starmer's reshuffle at the end of last week, could launch the new system "within weeks."

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Defence Secretary's comments on asylum housing

Speaking to Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Mr Healey said: "With the Home Office, I have been putting military planners into their border command and into their planning for the future.

He added that the government was looking into the "potential use of military and non-military sites for temporary accommodation" for those who arrived in the UK on small boats. 

Mr Healey was also questioned on the possibility of the military involvement in watching over the border on BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

He said that the British Army were only helping with planning and military bases.

Military involvement in asylum process

A former Royal Air Force base, MDP Wethersfield, in Essex and Napier Barracks, an old military base in Kent, are currently housing asylum seekers.

This isn't the first time the armed forces have played a role in migration and asylum processes. Back in 2020, the Home Office commandeered an A400M Atlas, which was later switched to a P8-Poseidon MRA1 maritime patrol aircraft and a Shadow R1 surveillance aircraft.  

The Ministry of Defence also previously took part in Operation Isotrope, which involved the Royal Navy aiding Border Force to help reduce small boat numbers.

"The UK government has form in turning to the military to assist in its migration governance," Dr Peter Willian Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said.

"When Labour came to power, they proposed to end the use of large sites for housing asylum seekers on feasibility and cost grounds.

"Now they look set to return to the policy of housing asylum claimants in disused military sites."

"This has taken place amidst high numbers of asylum applications and small boat arrivals, and growing public opposition to asylum hotels - and symbolically, disused barracks do not have the same connotations of luxury as hotels," he added.