I won’t let the Government dump its asylum crisis on Inverness, writes Angus MacDonald MP

It is a proposal imposed on Highland communities without consultation, with little warning, and without thought for the impact on local health and council services.

As the local MP and someone who served at Cameron Barracks myself when I was in the Army, I think it’s important that people realise that this is not some remote military outpost.

It sits at the heart of a residential area, just ten minutes from our High Street. The idea of turning it into a large-scale accommodation centre for hundreds of asylum seekers is deeply flawed.

Local people have voiced concerns about the strain this would place on already overstretched health services and council resources.

Military families living directly behind the barracks have told me they’re anxious about the sudden change in the site's use, especially with the unit's imminent deployment. These are legitimate worries, and they deserve to be heard.

When I met with the Asylum Minister, Alex Norris MP, he apologised that I had not been informed of the plans before they became public. I appreciate that apology, but it should never have happened in the first place.

Decisions of this magnitude must involve local representatives and service providers from the outset. Instead, the community has been left to pick up the pieces of another Whitehall diktat.

This is not about compassion versus hostility. I believe deeply in a humane and fair asylum system, but compassion must be matched with common sense.

Cameron Barracks is no more appropriate as a mass accommodation site than a city-centre hotel. It risks creating unnecessary tensions, provides no long-term solution, and helps no one - not local residents, not the overstretched council, and not the asylum seekers themselves.

The truth is that this plan is just the latest sticking plaster on a system that’s been broken for years. The Conservatives trashed the immigration process, letting the backlog spiral out of control and walking away from international agreements that once allowed us to return people safely and lawfully.

They have left tens of thousands in limbo, crammed into costly, unsuitable accommodation while their cases crawl through an overwhelmed system.

The Labour Government has inherited this mess, but they are making the same errors in a desperate attempt to look tough. Shuttling people from hotels in the south of England to city-centre barracks in the Highlands won’t solve the fundamental problem. The focus should be on fixing the root cause: the glacial pace of asylum decisions.

That’s why my party has proposed the creation of emergency processing centres. These would be temporary facilities, like the Covid hospitals, dedicated to clearing the asylum backlog within six months.

That would allow those without the right to stay to be swiftly returned, and those with valid claims to begin working, integrating and contributing to our communities.

Cameron Barracks is not the answer. The real solution lies in a system that is efficient, fair and transparent, one that treats people with dignity while restoring public confidence.

It’s time for the Government to listen, rethink, and finally fix the system, not dump the problem on Inverness.

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Angus MacDonald is the Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire.

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