Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity

Chris Philp Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Home Secretary to make a statement on criminal activity by illegal immigrants at asylum hotels.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime Prevention (Dame Diana Johnson)]

As the House will be aware, on Tuesday 8 July an arrest was made by Essex police following incidents that took place in Epping earlier that day, and a man was subsequently charged. His trial is due to start on 26 August, and he has been remanded in custody until that time. These are very serious allegations and it is vital that criminal justice procedures are able to run their course—Superintendent Tim Tubbs of Essex police has said that

“the last thing we want is for any public discussion to hinder an ongoing prosecution.”

I thank Essex police both for its swift response on that case and for handling the protests in Essex yesterday evening and in previous days with diligence and professionalism.

Criminal activity of any kind is totally unacceptable, wherever it occurs and whoever it is perpetrated by. As outlined following the recent Casey report, we are improving joint protection arrangements between the police and immigration enforcement linked to the asylum system. We are clear that where crimes are committed, every effort must be made to catch, prosecute and punish those responsible.

Let there be absolutely no doubt: foreign nationals, including asylum seekers, who abuse our hospitality by breaking our laws should expect to be removed from this country. In the first year of this Government, 5,179 foreign national criminals were removed from the UK—a 14% increase on the previous year. That is important progress, but we want to go further. Through the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are changing the law to ensure that individuals convicted of any registered sexual offence are not granted asylum, and we are legislating to allow for the tagging of any migrant considered to pose a threat to public safety or national security, as well as strengthening our crackdown on illegal working.

But we must go further to end hotel use. This Labour Government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with 400 hotels in use at the peak in 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million a day. We are changing that, clearing the asylum backlog and increasing returns to end the use of asylum hotels all together by the end of this Parliament. Alongside those actions, we are mounting a comprehensive and wide-ranging effort to tackle small boat crossings, including the intensified co-operation and pilot returns scheme with France outlined by the Home Secretary in her statement last week.

There is no quick fix for the chronic problems this Government inherited, but, for the first time in years, there is now a serious and sensible plan to restore order and proper management to the asylum and immigration system. Let me state plainly to the House that we expect rules to be respected and enforced, and we expect the law to be followed. When it is not, we expect those involved to face the full force of the law. We are taking every possible step to deliver the strong border security that the country needs, because nothing matters more than the safety of the British people.

[Chris Philp]

The Policing Minister was crowing about the Government’s action on small boats, but the truth is this: so far this year, the Government have allowed in 23,000 illegal immigrants across the channel—that is 52% up on last year; this year has been by far the worst ever; and numbers in asylum hotels are now higher than at the time of the election. This is a border security crisis, but it is also a public safety crisis, especially for women and girls. Many nationalities crossing—for example, Afghans—commit up to 20 times more sex offences than average; Louise Casey made that point in her report.

Now we have press reporting on the huge scale of the crime committed by illegal immigrants housed in the Government’s own asylum hotels. The Sun found 339 charges in the last six months based on only half the hotels currently operated. The Mail on Sunday found 708 charges based on only a third of those hotels. Those crimes included multiple cases of rape, sexual assault, violence, theft and arson, including the case that the Minister referred to in Epping, where a 38-year-old Ethiopian man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. An illegal immigrant in Oxford has been convicted of raping a 20-year-old woman in a churchyard. A Sudanese man was convicted of strangling and attempting to rape a woman in a nightclub toilet in Wakefield. Violent protest in response to those appalling crimes is never justified. The public, though, are rightly sick of this illegal immigrant crime wave. It has to end.

Will the Minister commit now to doing the following things? First, will she record and publish the immigration status of all offenders? Secondly, will she close that asylum hotel in Epping? Thirdly, will she repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration matters? Finally, will she emulate Greece’s new approach, which started today, and deport all illegal immigrants on arrival from France without judicial process either back to their country of origin or to a safe third country? Will she give the House and the country those commitments?

[Dame Diana Johnson]

Let me repeat to the House that any allegation of crime or sexual assault—including by individuals in the asylum system—is incredibly serious and is to be treated so by the authorities and by the Government. I regret the tone that the shadow Home Secretary is taking on such a serious and important matter. I also gently remind him to look at his record and that of the Conservative party on this issue. More than 400 asylum hotels were in operation at their peak, housing over 50,000 people at a cost of almost £9 million a day. Enforced returns were down 50% on 2010. Returns of foreign national offenders had fallen by a thousand. Criminal smuggler gangs were able to exploit our weak border security—

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Philp]

It is the worst year ever.

[Dame Diana Johnson]

There was no proper management of public safety risks posed by individual asylum seekers. [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Do we both understand?

[Chris Philp]

indicated assent.

[Mr Speaker]

Okay. Carry on, Minister.

[Dame Diana Johnson]

There was no proper management of public safety risks posed by individual asylum seekers, and migrants could work illegally in the gig economy with few sanctions for the companies responsible.

This Government are gripping the situation and turning the system around. We have removed 5,179 foreign national offenders in our first year in office. Just to put that in perspective for the benefit of the House, that is more foreign criminals than were removed in the entire 20 months when the right hon. Gentleman was the Minister for Immigration.

[Chris Philp]

We had covid!

[Dame Diana Johnson]

Excuse, excuse, excuse.

I would say that the same pattern is true of illegal working—but actually it is even worse. In the first quarter of this year, we delivered more raids, more arrests and more fines for illegal working than the shadow Home Secretary managed in the entire time he was Immigration Minister. We did more in three months to crack down on illegal working than he managed in 20. Now—

[Chris Philp]

That’s nonsense!

[Dame Diana Johnson]

It is not nonsense; it is facts.

Now we are trying to go further in all these areas, but it is clear that the Conservatives and their friends in Reform are the ones trying to stop us. We introduced counter-terror measures at the border to smash the gangs responsible for the vile trade; they voted against the Bill that delivers that. We introduced measures to ban sex offenders from getting asylum in the UK; they voted against the Bill that delivers them. We introduced tagging for those arriving illegally who pose a risk to the public, and extended illegal working duties to cover the gig economy; once again, they voted against it. We have seen 14 years of inaction, leaving our borders exposed and our communities fractured—yet the shadow Home Secretary has the cheek to lecture us about keeping the country safe.