Cost of Housing Asylum Seekers Jumps 42 Per Cent to £1.4 Billion in Britain

DUNGENESS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 04: A man lays on a bench as a group of around 40 migrants arr
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The cost of housing and supporting asylum seekers has ballooned to nearly £1.4 billion last year, amid record waves of migrants pouring across the English Channel and the Home Office failing to deport migrants.

In the year leading up to June, the British taxpayer shelled out £1.359 billion to support alleged asylum seekers, with many being provided free accommodation and other forms of welfare assistance.

The figure represents a 42 per cent increase over the previous 2019/20 recording period when £956 million was spent on supposed refugees.

Currently, there are 62,817 migrants receiving taxpayer-funded asylum support, with a total of 115,000 awaiting the decision on their asylum claims, the Daily Mail reported.

While their asylum claims are being processed they are provided free housing accommodation, free access to the National Health Service (NHS), free dental and eyesight care, education for their children, and a weekly allowance £37.75 to £39.60 per week, all at taxpayer expense.

The paper calculated that every day the taxpayer is paying £3.7million to prop up the system. For some context, in 2015, the daily bill was £726,000 for a yearly total of £265 million.

In the year leading up to March, Priti Patel’s Home Office was only able to deport 2,420 failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

The rising cost of housing asylum seekers comes amid record flows of illegal migrants across the English Channel from France put additional strain on the generous services provided to migrants.

To date, over 12,400 boat migrants have landed on British shores, almost all of whom will apply for asylum status. This is compared to 8,410 for the whole of last year, and less than 2,000 in the year prior.

While Home Secretary Priti Patel has repeatedly promised to get tough on illegal migration — calling for increased jail time for illegal migrants as a deterrent and possibly holding asylum seekers in a third country to process their refugee claims — the government has rejected taking the simple decision to just send the boats back to France unilaterally.

The chairman of Migration Watch UK, Alp Mehmet said: “As illegal crossings of the Channel shoot up, so will the cost of the asylum system and burden on the taxpayer – already at staggering levels.

“The only way to check this uncontrolled trend is to return substantial numbers of irregular arrivals and failed asylum seekers. Alas, this appears to be beyond the Government’s competence.”

The amount of money spent on asylum seekers is set to rapidly increase in the wake of President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In response to the Taliban taking control of the country, the British government has promised to take in at least 20,000 refugees from the country in a new resettlement programme aimed at helping women and girls at risk from the radical Islamist regime.

On Wednesday, the Home Office announced that it has committed £200 million to cover the costs of the Afghanistan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme in the first year, alone.

Some of this will be going to purchasing big homes for large families of Afghan refugees, as the government is reportedly concerned about keeping the Afghans in hotels for protracted lengths of time.

At least £12 million will be spent on helping Afghan refugees enter and attend schools, with English language support, with another £3 million going to the cost of their healthcare.

“We owe a great deal to the brave Afghans who worked alongside us and we want to make sure they have certainty and stability to be able to thrive in the UK,” Home Secretary Priti Patel said.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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