Migrants on the Move > Moving migrants from hotels to barracks? Will UK suspend visas for countries that won't take their illegal migrants back?

 

Good plan! Put the military in hotels!

UK to move illegals into military barracks after fury

over migrant hotels

Home Office figures show that accommodating asylum seekers is costing taxpayers nearly

£6 million a day

Migrants on a dinghy in the English Channel, headed to the UK, Gravelines, France, August 25, 2025. © Getty Images / Carl Court

The UK Defense Ministry plans to house illegal migrants in military barracks after widespread protests over the government’s use of taxpayer-funded hotels.

Demonstrations broke out across Britain after a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in July by a migrant housed in a hotel in the town of Epping.

As of July, 45,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels at a cost of nearly £6 million ($8.1 million) per day – an expense that has fueled public anger amid Britain’s worsening financial crisis. On Saturday alone, more than 1,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in small boats to reach the country, according to the Home Office.

“We are looking at the potential use of military and non-military sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here,” Defense Secretary John Healey told Sky News on Sunday.

He added that migrants would need to be “processed rapidly” to determine whether they could be deported.

I’m looking at it with the Home Office, and I recognize that the loss of confidence of the public over recent years in Britain’s ability to control its borders needs to be satisfied.

Read more

 ‘Hotels for illegals’ fury sparks street clashes in UK (VIDEOS)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday, appointing Shabana Mahmood as the new home secretary after pledging to tackle the migrant hotel crisis and the flood of illegals. She has reportedly been given license to crack down on the influx.

Starmer has faced a storm of criticism over the crisis, which many have seen as a show that Downing Street prioritizes the rights and safety of migrants over those of the British people.

The prime minister’s approval rating has collapsed over his immigration stance, as well as his handling of the Pakistani rape gang scandal. Nearly 70% of Britons have an unfavorable opinion of Starmer, according to a YouGov poll from last month.

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UK may suspend visas for countries that won’t take back people refused asylum, says Mahmood

New home secretary vows to move ‘further and faster’ to cut number of people entering by irregular routes

• 
  
• Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

Mon 8 Sep 2025 17.05 BST

Countries that refuse to take back rejected asylum seekers from the UK could face visa suspensions, Shabana Mahmood said on Monday, as she promised to move “further and faster” as home secretary.

Confirming that she hopes to take a harder line than her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, she said she would do “whatever it takes” to cut the number of people entering the UK by irregular routes such as small boats.

In a first announcement as home secretary, she proposed to cut the number of visas granted to countries that delay or refuse returns of their citizens who have no right to remain in the UK.

As home secretary, Shabana Mahmood will face enormous challenges

Read more

It was one of several proposals discussed with Britain’s closest allies at a meeting of the Five Eyes security partnership, which is made up of the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Mahmood said: “For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future.

“We do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back.”

Countries where returns of refused asylum seekers are low and demand for UK visas is high include India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. In June, Keir Starmer said he wanted to take a more “transactional” approach to the UK’s use of visas.

Experts said the lack of detail released by the government meant that it was difficult to assess whether any visa restrictions might persuade countries to take back more rejected asylum seekers.

Madeleine Sumption, the director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said: “We don’t currently know what sort of restrictions the government has in mind. In theory, it would involve entirely preventing citizens of certain countries from getting visit, work or study visas – the nuclear option - or smaller restrictions such as higher costs. This would affect the impacts both in the UK and on the negotiation.

“Governments around the world are likely to respond differently to the prospect of visa restrictions. Some countries to which the UK struggles to return refused asylum seekers do not receive many visas for their citizens anyway, and do not have well-functioning governments with the desire or capacity to negotiate – such as Somalia. They might not be particularly exercised by visa restrictions.

“However, there are quite a few countries where returns of refused asylum seekers are low and demand for UK visas is also high. How these countries would respond to threats to reduce visa access might depend how much they care about visa options for their citizens. This will vary, although some countries – such as India – have a long history of lobbying for visa access,” she said.

Mahmood also said she had always been in favour of ID cards but refused to be drawn on whether the government would look to make them compulsory.

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She said the government would look to bring forward proposals to change domestic legislation and guidance on how the European convention on human rights (ECHR) was implemented in the UK, saying the “balance” between human rights and secure borders “isn’t in the right place at the moment”.

Reform UK has already pledged to leave the ECHR entirely, along with other international conventions it regards as preventing “mass deportations”, while Kemi Badenoch has asked her shadow attorney general to examine the practicalities of leaving before the Conservative party conference next month.

Among the areas where Mahmood is expected to take a more hardline approach than Cooper is the issue of asylum accommodation.

Military commanders have been deployed to work with the Home Office’s border security command to find temporary accommodation such as prefabricated, modular buildings.

The Five Eyes meeting took place after it was confirmed more than 30,000 people had crossed the Channel in small boats so far in 2025, a record for this point in the year. At least 1,097 people arrived in the UK in 17 boats on Saturday, bringing the total in 2025 so far to 30,100.

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Economics > UK on brink of economic collapse

 

Will it take a financial collapse to get Britain to make sensible decisions on migrants, Ukraine's proxy war, stupid military expenditures, and soaring debts?

UK teeters on economic collapse

– Telegraph

Soaring debt and borrowing costs are approaching levels that once forced London to seek an IMF rescue, according to a recent report

© Getty Images / Frédéric Soltan / Contributor

Britain is facing the prospect of a repeat of its crippling 1976 economic crash as soaring debt and borrowing costs raise doubts over Labour’s budget policies, leading economists have warned, according to a Telegraph report.

The crisis nearly fifty years ago saw a Labour government forced to seek an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after deficits and inflation spun out of control. It became one of Britain’s worst postwar crises, with the bailout bringing deep spending cuts and Labour losing power a few years later.

Now Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces similar warnings, with forecasts showing a £50 billion ($68 billion) gap in the public finances and debt interest set to exceed £111 billion. Debt now exceeds 96% of GDP. At around £2.7 trillion, it is one of the heaviest burdens in the developed world. Government borrowing costs have surged, with yields on 30-year bonds climbing above 5.5%, higher than those of the US and Greece.

READ MORE: UK unveils bill to stop capital outflow

Jagjit Chadha, former head of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, told the Telegraph the outlook was “as perilous as the period leading up to the IMF loan of 1976,” warning Britain could struggle to meet pensions and welfare payments.

Andrew Sentance, once a Bank of England policymaker, said Reeves was “on course to deliver a [former UK Chancellor Denis] Healey 1976-style crisis in late 2025 or 26,” accusing Labour of fueling inflation with higher taxes, borrowing, and spending.

The warnings come weeks before Reeves is due to present her first autumn budget, where she is expected to announce further tax rises to cover the shortfall – a move critics argue would deepen the downturn. The Labour government also faces deepening political and economic challenges, including declining support.

On Saturday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage declared it was “the 1970s all over again,” while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described soaring borrowing costs as the price of Labour’s “economic mismanagement.”

London has pledged to raise military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, aligning with NATO commitments. Britain remains one of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters, delivering billions in military and financial aid – further squeezing already stretched public finances.

And who knows how much they spend housing and supporting the extraordinary flow of migrants into the UK?

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Migrants on the Move > UK tightens a few more screws; Uganda latest African country to get US deportees; UK Council removes migrants from hotel

 

Britain expands 'Deport Now Appeal Later'

scheme to 15 more countries

By Paul Godfrey

   

British ministers widened a scheme to deport failed asylum seekers and convicted foreign criminals before they get the chance to appeal from eight countries to 23. They will, however, still be able to appeal from overseas, provided they are eligible. File photo by Stuart Brock/EPA-EFE

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Britain tripled the number of countries whose citizens face being deported immediately upon having their asylum claim denied or being convicted of a crime as part of a so-called "Deport Now Appeal Later" scheme designed to prevent foreigners from using the legal system to remain in the country.

An additional 15 countries, including Canada, Australia, India and Bulgaria, were being added to the existing eight whose nationals could now be returned before being able to appeal, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a news release Sunday.

They said expanding the scheme, which applies in England and Wales only, would ease pressure on the detention system and prison overcrowding by boosting the government's ability to "remove foreign criminals at the earliest opportunity."

Foreign nationals who have had their human rights claim denied will be deported to their home country, from where they can lodge an appeal, taking part in any proceeding via video-link.

Separately, the Justice Ministry unveiled a parallel scheme that will work in tandem, removing foreign national offenders immediately after sentencing, saving taxpayers the cost of holding them until the current halfway point in their sentence in British prisons before they can be deported.

Prisoners serving long prison terms for terrorism, murder and other serious offenses will have to serve out their sentences before becoming eligible for deportation.

"For far too long, foreign criminals have been exploiting our immigration system, remaining in the U.K. for months or even years while their appeals drag on. That has to end. Those who commit crimes in our country cannot be allowed to manipulate the system, which is why we are restoring control and sending a clear message that our laws must be respected and will be enforced," said Cooper.

People whose asylum claim has been denied can be removed before their appeal if the home secretary can certify it would not breach the European Convention on Human Rights, which says people cannot be removed if they would be exposed to "serious irreversible harm" by doing so.

Most of the other countries being added to the list are in Africa and Asia with the new countries accounting for 774 prisoners, or just 7% of the 10,772 foreigners serving time in prisons in England and Wales. Albanians are the largest foreign group in the prison population with 1,193 inmates.

The Home Office claimed it had removed 5,200 people since the Labour government took office in July 2024, up 14% on the previous 12 months.

The changes are part of a government pledge to tackle "illegal" migration that it said had resulted in 35,000 people with no right to remain being returned in the past 12 months, a 50% jump in workplace raids and arrests and paring down the asylum claims backlog by more than doubling the number of decisions.

Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative MP Chris Philp, criticized what he said was a U-turn by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government.

"Until Keir Starmer either commits to deporting all foreign criminals or stops rolling out the red carpet for migrants the world over, this problem is not going away," Philp said.

The government is in the early stages of formulating new legislation to crack down on what it claims is abuse of a "right to a family life" clause in the country's Human Rights Act -- incorporating the ECHR into British law -- which it argues is widely invoked in appeals against deportation or when asylum claims are denied.

Under the strategy, defendants with immediate family in the United Kingdom can argue that separating them from their relatives by forcibly removing them to another country is a breach of their human rights.

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US secures deal to deport migrants to African state – CBS

Uganda has reportedly agreed to accept an unspecified number of deportees, provided they do not have criminal records

FILE PHOTO: Migrants line up after crossing the US-Mexico border. ©  John Moore / Getty Images

Uganda has agreed a deal with Washington to host migrants from third countries who are being deported from the US, CBS reported on Tuesday, citing internal official documents.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has pursued third-country resettlement deals to deport asylum seekers as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration, despite criticism and protests.

The agreement with Uganda, according to CBS, will see the East African country accept an unspecified number of African and Asian deportees who had claimed asylum on the US-Mexico border “as long as they don’t have criminal histories.”

A separate deal between Washington and Honduras will reportedly allow the Central American nation to receive several-hundred deportees from Spanish-speaking countries. According to the outlet, Honduras has agreed to a “relatively small number of deportations – just several hundred over two years,” although documents suggest it could accept more.

At least a dozen countries have reportedly accepted or agreed to take in deportees who are not their own citizens. Earlier this month, Uganda’s neighbor Rwanda struck a deal with the White House to accept up to 250 deportees in return for a US grant. Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said Kigali would “approve each individual proposed for resettlement.”

READ MORE: African country rules out accepting US deportees – media

In July, the US Department of Homeland Security deported five “barbaric criminals” to Eswatini, weeks after sending eight others to conflict-torn South Sudan. Details of the agreements with both countries have not been disclosed. The White House earlier revoked all visas for South Sudanese passport holders and suspended new issuances, saying the measure could be reviewed once the country fully cooperates in accepting deported nationals.

READ MORE: Trump’s Africa pivot: Leverage, not generosity

Nigeria has declared it will not accept foreign deportees from the US. Yusuf Tuggar, the foreign minister of Africa’s most populous nation, accused the Trump administration of using visa restrictions and tariff hikes to pressure African countries into accepting migrants, including “some straight out of prisons.”

Washington has imposed travel sanctions on several Ugandan officials over alleged corruption and human rights abuses following Kampala’s passage of an anti-gay law in 2023, and removed the country from the duty-free African Growth and Opportunity Act trade initiative.

UK: District Council wins case to remove asylum seekers from hotel that has drawn protesters by the thousands

Aug 20, 2025 8:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams1 Comment

Epping Forest District Council officials asked a judge to temporarily block migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, because of “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption.” They should have done it out of a sense of duty, instead of in response to an escalation of outrage. Thousands were protesting, some aggressively, while Essex police eventually admitted to escorting pro-migrant protesters to the asylum hotel.

The court victory is a significant development in recognizing that British taxpayers have taken enough abuse from their leaders. Their pushback has finally yielded a response. Note, however, AP’s deep leftist bias, calling the anti-mass migration protesters “far-right groups,” while the protesters in favor of mass migration and open borders are called “anti-racism demonstrators.” Imagine how differently many people would regard this incident if AP called the anti-mass migration protesters “defenders of the native people and culture,” and the pro-mass migration demonstrators “advocates of national destruction.” Their bias is just as pronounced on the other side.

Officials win court case to remove asylum-seekers from a UK hotel that’s been the focus of protests

by Sylvia Hui, Associated Press, August 19, 2025:

LONDON (AP) — A hotel near London that has become the focus of heated anti-migrant protests in recent weeks will have to remove asylum-seekers who are staying there after authorities won a legal bid Tuesday to oust the migrants.

Officials from the Epping Forest District Council asked a judge to issue an order to temporarily block migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, due to “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption” over asylum-seeker accommodation.

Thousands of people, some chanting “save our kids” and “send them home,” have protested near the hotel after an asylum-seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month.

The protests, which included local people as well as some members of organized far-right groups, started out peaceful but turned violent. At least nine people were arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Anti-racism demonstrators have also staged counterprotests outside the Bell Hotel and other sites.

Philip Coppel, a lawyer for local officials in Epping, said the hotel’s housing of asylum-seekers had provided a “feeding ground for unrest” and community tension.

A High Court judge ruled Tuesday that the hotel must stop housing asylum-seekers by Sept. 12. It wasn’t immediately clear where the migrants would be moved to….