Asylum seekers will be housed in the most basic accommodation possible, including disused army bases and possibly ships, to save money and to dissuade people from coming to the UK, the government has said.
In a Commons statement setting out the next stage in the plans to reduce asylum claims in the UK, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the plans would meet legal requirements to ensure that those who arrived were not made “destitute”, but nothing more.
“We must not elevate the wellbeing of illegal migrants above those of the British people,” he told MPs.
In one answer, Jenrick appeared to argue that the government had to remove incentives to arrive by small boats by being as ruthless as people smugglers: “They are some of the most evil, most pernicious people in society. You have to match them – you cannot behave in a way that is weak and naive.”
Jenrick’s plan won praise from many of his MPs, but was condemned by Labour as “an admission of failure”, while two ministers have voiced concern about housing asylum seekers on military sites in their constituencies.
Jenrick confirmed plans to house people at the disused defence base at Wethersfield in Essex, the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, an RAF site turned prison in Bexhill, East Sussex, and the Catterick garrison in North Yorkshire.
Ministers were also continuing to “explore the possibility of accommodating migrants in vessels”, he added, after reports that refugees could be kept on disused cruise ships or barges.
Jenrick said the current cost of keeping people in hotels while their claims are assessed was too high and placed pressure on communities. He set out his intention to make the alternative accommodation as basic as allowed under international law.
The proposal follows plans to bar people who arrive in the UK unofficially from ever being able to claim asylum or settle in the country. They will instead face deportation to Rwanda or another country.
Given the scale of arrivals on boats across the Channel, “we must fundamentally alter our posture towards those who seek to enter our country illegally”, Jenrick said.
“This government remains committed to meeting our legal obligations to those who would otherwise be destitute. But we are not prepared to go further. Accommodation for migrants should meet their essential living needs and nothing more. Because we cannot risk becoming a magnet for the millions of people who are displaced and seeking better economic prospects.”
Jenrick also announced a funding package for councils that are using hotels, saying “several thousand” refugees would be kept in “repurposed barrack blocks and Portakabins” and military bases, with “basic healthcare” and 24-hour security.
Such a spartan regime is likely to prompt more condemnation from refugee charities and human rights groups, which have already criticised the illegal migration bill that would bar those who arrive unofficially from making asylum claims in the UK.
Responding to the statement, the Refugee Council said the plans were unworkable and “not who we are as a country”. Enver Solomon, its chief executive, said: “We should be providing accommodation which treats people with humanity, dignity and compassion, not barges and shipping containers.”
It remains to be seen how easy it will be to roll out the plan of using military bases, let alone ships.
Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP whose Gainsborough constituency contains RAF Scampton, which was the base for the Dambusters bomber squadron in the second world war, said the council would seek an injunction to stop it being used and that he supported it.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has previously spoken out against the Wethersfield site, in his Braintree constituency, being used to house refugees.
In a statement released as Jenrick spoke, Cleverly said the decision to use the base “isn’t the result my constituents and I wanted”, but that he had been given assurances about community safety.
Huw Merriman, the rail minister, also expressed concern about the choice of the Northeye site in Bexhill, saying this would be “of great concern to local residents”.
There were some wider worries expressed by Tory backbenchers in the chamber. Richard Drax, the South Dorset MP, said housing asylum seekers on boats would be deeply impractical and “utterly out of the question”.
Edward Timpson, a Conservative former education minister, sought assurances that children would not be housed in the camps. Jenrick replied that they would be used only for “single adult males” and that children and families would be “properly supported”.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the plan was “an admission of failure” over the scale of the backlog in processing asylum claims. “They keep making new announcements, but it just keeps getting worse,” she said.
