Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels are being used as contingency accommodation for irregular migrants in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is not a dispersal area and asylum seekers are therefore not routed between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Northern Ireland’s asylum population is however, proportionate to its population when compared to the UK. Because Northern Ireland is not a dispersal area, only those claiming asylum in Northern Ireland are accommodated there.

For the safety, security and wellbeing of staff and those being accommodated, the Home Office does not disclose information about accommodation sites.

However, data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including contingency, by local authority (including Northern Ireland) can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.