Barracks Used by Home Office to House Asylum Seekers to be Given Back to MOD

Napier barracks in Kent, one of the first mass accommodation sites used to house asylum seekers, is to be closed after years of problems, including a mass Covid outbreak, poor facilities and far-right protests.

- Diane Taylor

The news was buried in a Home Office document uploaded to parliament's cross-party home affairs committee on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the provision of asylum accommodation.

In the document the Home Office states that it intends "to occupy and deliver services at Napier until September 2025, at which point the site will be handed back to the Ministry of Defence".

Napier, in Folkestone, along with Penally barracks, Pembrokeshire, which was used to house asylum seekers for a few months in late 2020 and early 2021, were opened because of pressure on the Home Office to provide suitable accommodation for asylum seekers during the pandemic.

Napier has capacity for 328 male asylum seekers, who were accommodated in dormitories.

There was a mass Covid outbreak in July 2021, with 197 cases identified.

The high court ruled in 2021 that it did not meet "minimum standards".