Asylum seekers currently housed at a contentious hotel in Dorset are expected to be moved out by the end of the year and transferred to military sites, according to an MP.
Jessica Toale, the Labour MP for Bournemouth West, said the Roundhouse Hotel in Bournemouth will no longer be used to accommodate asylum seekers from October.
The three-star hotel is one of three locations in the seaside town being used as asylum accommodation, with the sites collectively housing hundreds of people. The Britannia Hotel and the Chine Hotel are set to remain in use for now, though they are expected to close as asylum accommodation by 2029.
The Roundhouse has attracted further scrutiny in recent months. In March, two migrants were jailed after using a room they shared at the hotel as a base for a county lines drug operation.
Separately, at least 11 asylum seekers staying at the Roundhouse and the nearby Britannia Hotel were convicted of offences over the past year, including cases involving a stabbing and a rape.
The 102-room hotel has also become a regular flashpoint for demonstrations, with near-weekly confrontations involving anti-immigration protesters and anti-racism campaigners as local concerns over its use have continued to grow.
Last weekend, around 100 anti-immigration demonstrators clashed with police and counter-protesters outside the Roundhouse.
Residents in Bournemouth told the Daily Mail last year that they felt the town had declined in recent years, citing concerns about rising crime, teenage gangs and growing tensions in the area.
The Roundhouse Hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, (pictured) will stop housing asylum seekers by October, Bournemouth West Labour MP Jessica Toale announced
Last weekend, around 100 anti-immigration protesters clashed with police and counter-protesters outside the Roundhouse
The imminent closure of the Roundhouse comes as part of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to close all 200 migrant hotels by 2029 under a Government ‘dispersal’ scheme.
Currently, 21,000 asylum seekers are hosted across 170 taxpayer-funded hotels in the UK.
According to Home Office data, as of December 31 last year, 477 people were housed across the Chine Hotel, Britannia Hotel and the Roundhouse in the seaside town.
In March, Mohammed Dawood and Alsayid Abdul-Khalik were jailed for using the Roundhouse – run under Britannia Hotels – as an HQ to deal crack cocaine and heroin.
The pair, who are Egyptian nationals, sent bulk messages to more than 100 customers advertising drug deals in the days leading up to their arrests.
The pair were caught when officers recognised two known drug users emerging from an alleyway, one boasting, ‘I have scored a big deal,’ and then followed and detained the two asylum seekers.
They were found to be in possession of 85 wraps of the two class A drugs and £170 in cash.
Police then searched the room the two men shared at the Roundhouse and found £500 in cash under Dawood’s bed.
They also found SIM cards and mobile phones with messages sent to a known ‘drug line’ and contacts called ‘Busby’ and ‘Scouse’.
Dawood, 26, had a previous conviction for possessing a class A drug. He was also involved in a mass brawl in which six people were stabbed outside Bournemouth & Poole College in January 2024.
He was jailed for 37 months and Abdul-Khalik for 44 months by a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court.
The 102-room hotel has become the scene of near-weekly angry protests between anti-immigration protesters and anti-racism campaigners, with locals raising concerns about its use
Ms Toale welcomed the ’emptying’ of the hotel and added she would collaborate with both community and landlord to bring the site ‘back to life as something we can all be proud of’.
The Labour MP described it as ‘an important step forward’, adding she will continue to work with the Home Office until the ‘town is no longer carrying a disproportionate share of hotel-based asylum accommodation’.
She added all three hotels – the Roundhouse, Britannia and the Chine – are planned to close before 2029, under the Government’s ‘dispersal scheme’.
Ms Toale said the decision to close the Roundhouse came due to a lower demand for asylum accommodation, claiming a ‘reduction in boat crossings’ and subsequent ‘decrease for asylum accommodation’.
She added: ‘Where need for accommodation remains, the Home Office has been focused on the use of military sites in lieu of hotels, not on displacement into communities via HMOs.’
However, the Daily Mail revealed in April that Labour’s promise to close all 200 migrant hotels by 2029 would in reality mean asylum seekers being relocated to residential streets nationwide.
British taxpayer money currently funds around 170 hotels, which dropped down from a peak of 400 under the previous government.
The number of people accommodated in hotels has fallen from around 56,000 in 2023 to around 21,000 in 2026.
According to Home Office statistics, in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, the number of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by almost 45 per cent in less than a year.
A total of 39,000 illegal migrants reached the UK in small boats in the year ending March 2026, making up around 90 per cent of all people entering the country without authorisation.
Between 2018 and 2026, a total of 197,000 people have crossed the Channel on small boats, according to governmental figures.
Britannia Hotels and the Home Office have been contacted for comment.
