There are no published figures for the number of refugees with formally settled status across the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council area. For asylum-seekers – those whose claims are still being processed – numbers fluctuate. According to Home Office figures reported by the BBC, about 500 were being housed in hotels as of December 2025, a proportion broadly in line with other UK councils using hotels (around a third of all councils). A further 70 people were in other forms of housing, less than half the average for councils providing non-hotel accommodation.
What is certain is that the presence of migrants has become a lightning rod for local debate. Asylum-seekers, in particular, face a familiar mix of support, mistrust, and, at times, open hostility.
A patchwork of support
BCP Council supports refugees and asylum-seekers through a dedicated resettlement team, focusing on accommodation, but also providing wraparound care. In addition to the Homes for Ukraine scheme and specific initiatives to help Afghan refugees, both part of the national response, the area also hosts refugees from Iraq, Syria, and other countries. This includes Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASCs), whose care, because of their age, is the responsibility of the local authority. This has presented significant challenges locally. In January 2023, for example, the BCP area had 56 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care, or 10.7% of the total number of children in its care – considerably higher than both the national and regional averages.
To tackle these issues, the Council works in partnership with a number of local voluntary organisations, such as Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, which helps secure accommodation. In 2023, Refugee Support EU launched its first UK project in Bournemouth: the Dignity Centre. They stepped in because, while some support exists for those granted refugee status, far less is available to people seeking asylum, who must wait months or even years in temporary accommodation and are not permitted to work. Initially, the Dignity Centre aimed to support the residents of the infamous Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset. When that closed down for health and safety reasons, they shifted their focus to Bournemouth.
“We got our identity back”
There have been a remarkable number of other initiatives to address the difficulties faced by migrants, whether from large organisations or small-scale groups powered by volunteers. Football offers a telling example. An issue often cited by migrants is isolation from the host community, caused by language barriers and the ban on working. To counter this, football teams made up of refugees have sprung up, facilitated by the Dignity Centre (‘Dignity FC’), AFC Bournemouth, and Bournemouth University’s Sport Therapy department, among others. Ben Maatoug, a personal adviser with BCP Council, has masterminded United Players FC. The impact is summed up by the players:
“We came to this country with no ID, we belong nowhere, we have no visa, no refugee status. This is the first [place] that we felt we got our identity back”.
Grounded Community is another good example of a small charity supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, BCP Council, and Bournemouth Foodbank. The charity welcomes asylum-seekers at their ‘Secret Garden’ in the heart of town, where they can grow food, feel valued, and regain a sense of purpose.
When tensions spill into the open
Perhaps the saddest thing is that one of the most active of these local charities, well known for helping migrants by providing English language lessons, welfare support, and programmes for UASCs, has declined to be interviewed for this article. They explained that, at the moment, they do not want to expose themselves to unwanted attention from the far-right, which has put them and their service users at risk.
In Bournemouth, an established tourist destination, there’s a clear backlash from some residents who feel that using hotels to house asylum-seekers might deter visitors. However, it isn’t just about the hotels, and one charity featured in this article, which asked not to be named, is correct in stating that the far-right is getting bolder.
Since August 2025, groups calling themselves Bournemouth Patriots and Poole Patriots have been seen most weeks demonstrating against the presence of migrants outside the landmark Roundhouse, the most prominent of these hotels. Counter-demonstrators, such as Stand Up to Racism, are present and vocal too. In January 2026, those ‘Patriots’ even protested outside the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), whose national headquarters are in Poole. They accused the RNLI, whose role is to save lives at sea under international maritime law, of acting as a “taxi service for illegal immigrants”. There, too, they were outnumbered three to one.
“Protecting our community” – or policing it?
A vigilante group calling itself ‘Safeguard Force’ has recently appeared on the streets of Bournemouth. It was founded by a local man, Gary Bartlett, who claims to be responding to a sense of fear among residents and to “protect our community”. Members can be seen patrolling the town centre in self-styled ‘uniforms’, although Dorset Police have made it clear they do not endorse or condone the group.
In an effort to create an apolitical, even benevolent, image, Bartlett took part in a podcast produced by Dodge Woodall, a content creator sympathetic to Bartlett’s cause, who, among other interests, documents the lives and times of criminals in Britain. As it happens, Bartlett has since had to admit that some members of his ‘Safeguard Force’ have past or even unspent criminal convictions, as reported in the Bournemouth Daily Echo. This raises serious safeguarding concerns and is one reason Dorset Police are keeping the group at arm’s length. Not only that, but if you pull down the masks you find that the same names appear in a Facebook group called ‘Taking Back Our Country’, which contains Islamophobic and anti-migrant posts, as revealed by reporter Olly Haines in Bylines Times.
What the data actually shows
As so often, perception and reality diverge. There is no evidence of a drop in visitors; quite the reverse. According to an article published in October 2025 on the BCP website, “businesses in Bournemouth are reporting a successful summer after people made more than 10 million trips to the town centre across June, July, and August”. The same applies to the level of criminality. According to the same article, “independently measured statistics show crime in Bournemouth is down year on year and, as a county, Dorset remains in the top 10 safest places to live”. Taken together, the available evidence demonstrates that the presence of asylum-seekers in Bournemouth has become a focus for far-right activities, suggesting that hostility is being driven less by evidence than it is by perception.
Making a contribution
Interestingly, asylum-seekers from the Roundhouse Hotel were asked by volunteers supporting them how they felt about the heckling taking place outside. They reported feeling less anger or fear than embarrassment – shame, even – for being so obviously unwanted and rejected by a section of the local population.
A good news story, on the other hand, came from Mark (not his real name), a young Ghanaian. In September 2024, he arrived at Gatwick, where he was held in a detention centre. He was relocated to Bournemouth pending the decision on his asylum claim. As a way of giving back for the help he received, he started volunteering at Grounded Community’s Secret Garden, where he has also improved his English. His application for refugee status was granted in January 2026. He is now entitled to work and will look for a job in construction.
Labour’s plan to reset the system
Any long-term solution will be decided in Westminster. This is what Jessica Toale, the Labour MP for Bournemouth West, told West England Bylines:
“We’re trying to close asylum hotels because it’s not good for asylum-seekers, not good for the local community, and not good for the taxpayer […] There are also people – and I meet them all the time – who are not happy with where their lives are, who are struggling with the cost of living […] We are tackling those underlying issues that drive people towards a real fear and allow people to weaponise immigration as an easy answer to some of the really complex challenges we face as a nation […] We need to restore trust in the system, as well as introduce safe and legal routes […] The new refugee model [shifting from permanent to temporary for those who claim asylum from March 2026] is about making the system fairer, founded in the reality of the world today.”
You can watch the full interview with Jessica here.
‘Lift the ban’: the case for the right to work
Meanwhile, the Lib Dem-led BCP Council has joined the ‘Lift the Ban’ coalition. In January 2024, the Council formally moved to join the campaign to allow asylum-seekers the right to work, aiming to help them support themselves and reduce pressure on public services. Supporters argue that this would also help restore these people’s sense of dignity, set them off on the path to integration, and reduce the mistrust that the far-right feeds on, in Bournemouth and elsewhere.
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