Asylum seekers who refuse to move out of hotels could risk losing their housing, the Home Office has revealed.
The Home Office today announced its new "Failure to Travel" policy aimed at tackling "non-compliance by asylum seekers".
It will mean those who are moved out of hotels to suitable alternative accommodation must take it.
Asylum seekers who refuse to move "without a valid reason" will risk losing their housing and support, the Home Office has said.
Dame Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, said the Government is working to "close hotels" and "restore order", as well as putting "fairness and value for money at the heart of the asylum system".
“This Government is making those necessary decisions to protect the taxpayer and uphold the integrity of our borders, the asylum minister said.
“These reforms to the Failure to Travel policy are another example of this Government’s action to transform the asylum accommodation system and crack down on those who abuse our system, so it operates fairly and saves the taxpayer money.”
It comes follow a number of recent protest outside asylum seeker hotels, including in Essex last week.
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|Police outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where asylum seekers are believed to have been housed
The unrest near The Bell Hotel in Epping has so far led to a total of 18 arrests and seen seven people charged.
Epping Forest District Council yesterday voted unanimously to urge the Home Office to close the hotel.
In reference to the council vote, the Home Office said: “We’ll continue to work closely with local police and community partners, in Epping and across the country, as we fix this broken system.”
In a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Essex Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst described the use of the hotel in Epping as “unsuitable” for housing migrants and warned that the presence of asylum seekers was “clearly creating community tension”.
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|18 people have been arrested following a protest outside The Bell Hotel in Epping last week
In his letter, Hirst said: “[I am] requesting a meeting to discuss the ongoing use of hotels in the Epping Forest district of Essex, and elsewhere in the county, to accommodate newly-arrived asylum seekers.
“Specifically, I am seeking to highlight the unsuitability of the hotel in Epping for this purpose, and request that its use be reviewed.
"The presence of asylum seeker accommodation in this district is clearly creating community tension.
"These large-scale protests are disrupting local life and placing an unwelcome burden on Essex Police resources."
The protest in Epping on July 17 began peacefully but escalated into what Essex Police described as “scattered incidents of violence”, targeting officers and property.
The force previously said a small number of people used that demonstration as cover to commit violent disorder and criminal damage.
Eight officers were injured and a number of police vehicles were damaged as missiles were thrown.
Police are braced for further protests, with the Government and law enforcement having vowed to act swiftly if unrest spreads.
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|Essex Police revealed earlier this week the cost of policing the Epping protest had reached £100,000
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said yesterday thatshe was “confident” the prison system was now robust enough to cope if riots were to erupt again.
“I’m confident we’ve taken the decisions that mean that we will always be able to respond,” she said.
“I’m not going to let us run out of prison places.
“Governments can’t predict the future but our job is to make sure that we are capable of responding in a way that the public would expect and I’m confident we are in that position.”