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Movement is not restricted to defined areas, but temporary admission or bail, which is the usual status of asylum seekers, is usually conditional on residence at a particular address, and there is a requirement to keep the Home Office informed of any change of address.
Asylum seekers accommodated by the Home Office are not permitted to stay away from their accommodation, and the Home Office will cease providing accommodation in practice if an asylum seeker stays elsewhere for more than a few days.
Allocation to accommodation is done by the private company, which manages property in the relevant region on the basis of the availability of housing. The initial allocation to a region and to an initial accommodation centre is arranged after the screening interview. The availability of housing in a region depends on procurement by the private company, which is affected by local housing markets, and local authority policy. There has been an increase in the use of institutional accommodation including repurposed military barracks, which has resulted in media attention.[1]
The limits on asylum seekers’ choice of location have been described in the section on Criteria and Restrictions to Access Reception Conditions. There is no appeal against the location allocated.
Asylum seekers live among the rest of the population and have no restrictions on their freedom of movement except that imposed by lack of resources and the requirement to stay at the allocated address. That they stay at the address is monitored by routine visits by the housing providers, and for some by the requirement to report regularly (anything from twice weekly to every six months) at a regional Home Office reporting centre although the requirement for most new asylum applicants, if recently arrived in the country, has been reduced as a matter of policy (the powers remain unchanged).[2] Privacy International has worked on the issue of surveillance using the ASPEN payment card and reported on its campaigning correspondence in May 2021.[3]
[1] The Guardian, Asylum seeker housing conditions under scrutiny at third ex-military site, 14 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/39n1f7m This report includes links to others and summarises concerns.
[2] Home Office, Reporting and offender management – Version 6.0, 19 January 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3ijwY0d.
[3] Privacy International, ‘the UK Home Office still has questions to answer about the Aspen Card’, 12 May 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3VA4Vrw.