Refugee and asylum seeker housing: FOI release

Information requested

Where all the refugees and asylum [seekers] are living right now. i.e. Hotels, hostels, homes etc.

Response

The answer to part of your question is that asylum seekers live in a variety of types of accommodation including hotels and housing. People seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute while awaiting a decision on their asylum application can apply for accommodation and/or subsistence support. Asylum accommodation is provided on a no choice basis, generally in self-contained flats or similar accommodation, in dispersal areas across the UK. The Scottish Government is aware some people seeking asylum are being accommodated in hotels as contingency initial asylum accommodation. Asylum accommodation, including contingency accommodation, is provided under Home Office contracts because asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office.

Refugees can access housing on the same basis as UK citizens and may be living in a variety of different types of accommodation. The Scottish Government is aware that some refugees who have arrived to Scotland under UK refugee resettlement schemes have been placed in temporary accommodation in hotels prior to the identification of suitable long term accommodation.

You may also be interested in the following information relating to support for displaced people from Ukraine: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-in-scotland-statistics-december- 2022/

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because no information is held by the Scottish Government relating to asylum accommodation or specific information about where asylum seekers and refugees are living. Asylum seekers who do not require support from the Home Office, because they have access to accommodation or means to acquire it, may live anywhere across the UK while awaiting a decision on their application.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

However, as asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office, you may wish to contact the Home Office at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk to find out whether there is further information which they would be able to provide in relation to your request. You may also find information which has already been published under previous information requests, as part of statistical releases, or otherwise made available on the UK Government website: Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.