How many asylum seekers are housed in hotels in Scotland?

A total of 1,573 asylum seekers are housed in hotels in Scotland, according to newly published data.

The numbers have increased in recent months – mirroring a rise across the UK – but is lower than the peak reached in September 2023 under the Tories.

The figures come just days after a court ruled that more than 100 asylum seekers currently staying at a hotel south of the border should be removed from the accommodation after a council brought a legal case.

The High Court judgment has led to ministers bracing for further legal challenges from councils across the country and pressure on the Government as to where else they can house asylum seekers.

Falkirk Council is among those considering the implications of the ruling.

Data is not released on the number of hotels in use, but it is thought there were more than 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, which Labour said it had now reduced to fewer than 210.

Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation, known as contingency accommodation, if they are awaiting assessment of their claim or have had a claim approved and there is not enough longer-term accommodation available.

Here is a full list of the latest available data showing the number of asylum seekers housed temporarily in hotels across Scotland, by local authority.

Council	Asylum Seekers in Hotels (June 30)	Asylum Seekers in Hotels (March)	Change (March to June)
Aberdeen	364	300	+64
Aberdeenshire	312	250	+62
Angus	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	103	69	+34
Dundee	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0
Edinburgh	162	153	+9
Falkirk	92	79	+13
Fife	0	0	0
Glasgow	0	0	0
Highland	0	0	0
Inverclyde	104	104	0
Midlothian	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	0
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0
Orkney	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	192	171	+21
Renfrewshire	66	61	+5
Scottish Borders	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	90	86	+4
Stirling	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
West Lothian	88	79	+9

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted Labour’s actions in the past year in increasing returns of failed asylum seekers, cutting asylum costs and the backlog, as well as plans to overhaul what she described as the “failing” asylum appeal system, are all “crucial steps to restoring order and putting an end to the chaotic use of asylum hotels that we inherited from the previous government”.

But shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Labour of having “lost control of Britain’s borders”, claiming “hotels would already be gone” if the Conservatives were still in power.

The Refugee Council praised Labour for “bringing the asylum system back from the brink of collapse”, saying quicker asylum decisions “means refugees can begin to rebuild their lives sooner, and the use of costly hotels can be ended faster”.

Amid hotel protests, campaigners including Rape Crisis and Refuge have warned conversations about violence against women and girls are being “hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda” which they argued fuels divisions and harms survivors.

More than 100 women’s organisations have written to ministers to say they “have been alarmed in recent weeks by an increase in unfounded claims made by people in power, and repeated in the media, that hold particular groups as primarily responsible for sexual violence”.

They added: “This not only undermines genuine concerns about women’s safety, but also reinforces the damaging myth that the greatest risk of gender-based violence comes from strangers.”