Asylum seekers will be housed in disused holiday parks rather than hotels under plans to crack down on illegal immigration, Rishi Sunak has announced.
The prime minister unveiled the plan as he unveiled a raft of policies aimed at stopping small boats crossing the Channel from France and clearing the huge backlog of asylum cases.
Sunak said “enough is enough” as he set out a five-point plan to deal with the issue.
The PM is coming under intense pressure from Tory MPs to halt the number of asylum seekers coming to the UK from France.
He said it was “unfair and appalling” that the government currently pays £5.5 million a day housing asylum seekers in hotels.
“We must end this,” he told MPs. “So we will shortly bring forward a range of alternative sites such as disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites.
“We have already identified locations that could accommodate 10,000 people and are in active discussions to secure these and many more.
“Our aim is to add thousands of places through this type of accommodation in the coming months - at half the cost of hotels.”
The latest Home Office figures show there were more than 143,000 asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their claims, in the year to September while nearly 100,000 had been waiting more than six months.
More than 44,000 people have crossed the Channel to the UK this year, Government figures show.
In a Commons statement, Sunak said: “I said enough is enough and I mean it. And that means I am prepared to do what must be done.”
He said a “new, permanent, unified small boats operational command” will be set up, while more immigration raids will be carried out to crack down on illegal working.
An agreement will also be reached with the Albanian government to ensure the speedy return on migrants from that country, Sunak said.
“Over the coming months, thousands of Albanians will be returned home,” the prime minister said.
“And we’ll keep going with weekly flights until all the Albanians in our backlog have been removed.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer described the proposals as “unworkable gimmicks”.
He said: “It’s all designed to mask failure - to distract from a broken asylum system that can’t process claims, can’t return those with no right to be here, and can’t protect our borders.”