The Channel migrant crisis has overwhelmed the UK asylum system (Image: Getty)

       Labour does not have a “clear strategy” to end the asylum accommodation crisis, the borders watchdog has revealed. David Bolt, the interim independent chief inspector of borders, said the Home Office risks angering communities because it cannot provide “clarity” on its plans to stop housing migrants in taxpayer-funded hotels.

       And asylum seekers will still be able to stay in hotel rooms for a “number of years”, Mr Bolt confirmed. Asked about the various strategies to end the use of hotel rooms since the small boats crisis began, Mr Bolt told MPs: “The numbers were going up dramatically, it was trying to find a way of managing that. At one point, the answer seemed to be large sites. And that was the direction that was going in and that was the direction the prime minister was taking it in 2022.

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       Yvette Cooper is facing pressure to end the use of hotel rooms for asylum seekers (Image: Getty)

       “Now, it has obviously changed direction from large sites to small and medium sites, though I’m not entirely sure exactly what that means.

       “But that’s the shift. It’s a shift as far away from hotels, although I think the permanent secretary has indicated that that’s not going to happen for a number of years.

       “I’m not entirely clear what its strategy is. If it has one, it hasn’t articulated it in a way that I’ve been able to understand it.”

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       The Home Office, under the Conservatives, wanted to house migrants in former RAF bases in Wethersfield, Essex, and in Scampton, Lincolnshire, as well as on barges.

       But more migrants are being housed in hotels after a record number of applications from people seeking refuge in the UK, Home Office figures show.

       The number in hotel accommodation rose to 38,079 despite Labour’s General Election promise to “end asylum hotels”. This is up from 35,651 last September and 29,585 in June, before Labour came to power.

       Asked if Labour had an unclear strategy on asylum accommodation and its potential impact, Mr Bolt said: “It goes to the way in which it deals with stakeholders, local authorities and others around what the requirement might be for accommodation in particular locations.

       “If there isn’t that absolute clarity, then it is difficult to have those conversations and it’s difficult to have those early enough to be able to take on board all of the issues those discussions ought to cover.”

       Labour has insisted it inherited a “broken” asylum system from the previous government, and said it was deporting more people than ever before.

       Some 108,138 people applied for asylum in 2024, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

       It follows a 25% increase in cross-Channel arrivals with the number coming to the UK in small boats surging to 37,000 in 2024.

       And there were 124,802 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application, without which they cannot be removed, although this figure is falling.

       Ministers admitted last month that 220 hotels across the country are currently used to house asylum seekers and the number has risen by six since the election.

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       The cost to taxpayers is ￡5.4million every day and MPs have warned the use of hotels provokes tensions in communities and damages local economies.

       Mr Bolt added that migrants living in the former RAF base in Wethersfield, Essex, “had no sense of time” as concerns intensify over the asylum backlog.

       He added: “Those men know they can’t be there for more than 90 days. They have a degree of certainty about their future.

       “I sat about a group of about 20 of them and they were quite jolly.

       “They knew to the day when they were going to be moving.

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       “In contrast to Wethersfield, I also went there in July, and to the Bibby Stockholm, there were people who couldn’t recall how long they’d been there.

       “They had no sense of time.

       “That was affecting their mental health and their wellbeing.”