On 5 September 2024, the government announced that it will be shutting down the RAF Scampton site (formerly used by the Ministry of Defence). The site was intended to be used as a form of ‘non-detained’ asylum accommodation, but it was never actually used for this purpose. 

In response to the issues caused by using asylum hotel accommodation, the Home Office started using what it calls ‘large sites’ as alternative forms of accommodation to ‘limit the burden on the taxpayer’ and fulfil its duty to support people seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute.  

These large sites are ex-army barracks or former military units used by the Ministry of Defence. The sites at Napier Barracks and Wethersfield are in use and will remain open.

Scampton is not being shut down because of a change of heart about the treatment and rights of people seeking asylum in the UK, but rather because of very high costs.

Despite never actually being used as an asylum accommodation site, the government announcement states that “costs of £60m have already been incurred on the site at Scampton as a result of work done and commitments made by the previous Government… In addition, the estimated costs of opening the site and running it from this Autumn until the end of planned occupancy in March 2027 has now risen to a further £122m – taking the total cost for using this single site for a short time as asylum accommodation to at least £180m”.

This is a small win, and we will celebrate it. 

However, there is still much work to be done as the government continues to state its aim of expanding the detention estate and to carry out increased removals and deportations of people seeking safety in the UK. 

Much harm is caused to people as a result of being housed at non-detained accommodation sites. Though these sites are meant to be for temporary accommodation, the men housed there are often stuck in limbo for many months, and experience isolation and a deterioration of their mental and physical health.

For example, the dangers and difficulties of being housed in Wethersfield were outlined through first-hand evidence in a report published by Humans for Rights Network and Helen Bamber Foundation entitled ‘Ghettoised and traumatised: the experiences of men held in quasi-detention in Wethersfield’ in December 2023.

You can learn more about Asylum Support and accommodation in our detailed Toolkit page.