Concerns over Inverness barrack’s suitability for asylum seekers

Concerns have been raised about “community cohesion” after it emerged that a military base in Inverness has been earmarked to temporarily house about 300 asylum seekers.

BBC News understands that Cameron Barracks and an East Sussex army training camp will be used to house a total of about 900 men by the end of the month.

Both the Scottish government and three senior Highland councillors have highlighted concerns about the plans to the Home Office.

In a joint statement, the councillors said: “Our main concern is the impact this proposal will have on community cohesion given the scale of the proposals as they currently stand.”

“Inverness is a relatively small community but the potential impact locally and across the wider Highlands appears not to have been taken into consideration by the UK government,” they added.

Scotland’s social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said the Scottish government had urged the Home Office to work closely with Highland Council.

A UK government minister said the move would allow them to close asylum hotels at a faster rate.

Highland Council convenor Bill Lobban, leader Raymond Bremner and opposition leader Alasdair Christie, said they only received written confirmation of the UK government’s plans on Monday.

The local authority said it understood the property would be used as transitional accommodation from early December for up to 12 months.

The council said it had requested additional information from the Home Office about the plans for the city, which has a population of about 83,000.

In their statement, the senior councillors said: “We await more details on how Inverness was selected over other available locations and how community cohesion will be maintained given the large number of asylum seekers planned relative to the local population.

“The UK government have informed us that their accommodation will be self-contained, with all necessary services provided on site.

“The asylum seekers are ‘non-detained’, meaning they will be free to leave their site should they wish.”

Cameron Barracks sits on a hilltop near Inverness city centre, close to Raigmore Hospital, supermarkets and fast food takeaways.

Highland Council will hold a special meeting on the plans on Thursday.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “The Home Office is responsible for the provision of all asylum accommodation and we are aware that they are considering accommodating people seeking asylum in Cameron Barracks.

“We have raised our concerns about the suitability of the site with them and have urged them to engage closely with Highland Council and other service providers.”

The moves comes just months after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was phasing out use of the 140-year-old barracks as a site for housing people from Afghanistan who had risked their lives helping the UK armed forces.

The MoD said at the time that the barracks would be returned to use as a military base.

The UK government has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels, which have cost billions of pounds and become a focal point for anti-migrant protests, by the next election.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard told BBC Breakfast that the military sites were not “luxury accommodation by any means,” but “adequate for what is required”.

“That will enable us to take the pressure off the asylum hotel estate and enable those to be closed at a faster rate,” he said.

Pressed on whether military sites would be cheaper for the government than hotels, Pollard said the cost was currently being assessed and that “it depends on the base”.

Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, Angus MacDonald, said he supported the use of military sites to house asylum seekers, but that the chosen base seemed “a bit odd” given it is in the town centre.

“It’s effectively the same,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding that to his knowledge it was an open barracks without security.

“I very much thought the idea of putting them in army camps was to have them out of town, and make them less of an issue for the local population.”

An asylum seeker is someone asking for sanctuary due to dangers in their home country

In the UK, all applications for asylum are processed by the Home Office.

Asylum seekers do not have the same rights as a refugee or a British citizen while they wait for a decision. For example, asylum seekers are not allowed to work.

Successful applicants are given refugee status, but the applicant usually has to leave the country if their claim is rejected and any appeal is unsuccessful.

Since January 2022, Highland Council has supported asylum seeking children through the Home Office’s National Transfer scheme.

The local authority, working with charities and other organisations, set up the Comraich service in December 2022 to lease accommodation for 56 young people aged 16 and over.

Latest Home Office data from June shows that the Highland local authority area, with a population 236,330, also had 143 people living there under the Afghan resettlement programme.

A further 438 Ukrainians have moved to the area under a resettlement scheme launched after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Across Scotland, there are a total of 6,107 asylum seekers, a figure that has been steadily rising in recent years in line with the record numbers of applications across the UK, but it still only accounts for 0.67% of Scotland’s total population.

The vast majority of asylum seekers in Scotland – 4,152 – are living in Glasgow.