News / immigration
Bristol hotel housing asylum seekers ‘handed back’ to communities
A hotel in Bristol housing asylum seekers has now been shut.
Hampton by Hilton on Bond Street was one of 20 others named in a list published by the Home Office of hotels that had now been “handed back” to local communities.
The closures are part of the government’s plans to “remove incentives” that they say draw illegal migrants to Britain, while they increase removal of people “who have no right to be here”.
Bristol has seen a growing number of far-right protests in recent months outside hotels housing asylum seekers
“We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities and that is exactly what we are doing,” said border security and asylum minister Alex Norris.
Norris said that the number of hotels housing asylum seekers had halved under their administration, with more people now being moved to ex-military sites.
These former military sites, he added, were a “far cry” from the hotels that the previous Conservative government used to house asylum seekers.
“This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done,” he added.
Discussions are underway to use three Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites to house asylum seekers, with planning permission already being sought for MOD sites in Bicester, Barnham and Linton-on-Ouse.
Hotels housing asylum seekers across Bristol have been the site of several far-right protests, usually met with anti-racist counter-protests.
According to data published by Bristol City Council, as of August 2025 there were 1,327 asylum seekers housed in Bristol with 972 of them living in three city hotels. In the same month, the council confirmed to Bristol24/7 that they had no plans to challenge use of hotels for asylum seekers like councils in other parts of England.
The Home Office said that these hotel closures will be followed by more.
Main photo: Karen Johnson
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
