Around 45,434 people seeking asylum are living in hotels, even though the Prime Minister said they would stop doing that. Rishi Sunak is feeling more pressure to stop using hotels for migrants who come through the Channel, because new information shows that more than 45,000 of them are still living in rooms paid for by taxpayers.
Recent numbers from the Home Office reveal that 45,434 asylum seekers are staying in various places across the UK. About one-third of them, around 16,160, have rooms in London. Additionally, 5,652 are in the West Midlands, 5,394 in the South East, and 5,074 in the East of England.
The Home Office is spending £5.4 billion on accommodation and support for asylum seekers, according to estimates from the Treasury.
The Labour party has taken notice of these numbers and says the Government has “lost control of our immigration system and our border security.” Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, said, “A year after promising to stop using hotels, almost 46,000 people are still stuck in them. The Conservatives’ failure to clear the backlog and stop small boats arrivals has created a £4 billion problem in the Home Office budget, which taxpayers have to cover. Meanwhile, there’s an increase in work visas because they haven’t trained enough people in the UK.”
The Labour party has a plan to fix the problems at the border, improve the asylum system, increase deportations, and enhance skills and conditions in the UK. They say only Labour can bring the changes we need.
The Home Office has requested an extra £4.3 billion from the Treasury to deal with the small boats issue. Most of this money, around £2.3 billion, is being spent on hotel rooms. Sir Matthew Rycroft, the top official at the Home Office, told a committee that both the Home Office and Treasury know that asylum management can be unpredictable financially. They’ve been working together to handle extra costs through the usual budget process and by finding ways to save money. They’re trying to make the asylum system more cost-effective by stopping the expensive use of hotels and considering other types of housing.
Government ministers are trying hard to reduce the backlog of asylum cases and lessen the burden on taxpayers. One way they’re doing this is by arranging flights to Rwanda.
New data released today shows that by the end of December 2023, there were 91,350 asylum applications still waiting for a decision. This is up from 85,505 at the end of September 2023. However, the total number of people waiting for a decision on their asylum application has decreased by 20% from the previous year. The number of people waiting more than six months for a decision has also gone down.
The cost of the UK’s asylum system had previously increased significantly. Conservative MPs have criticized the immigration system, saying it needs major reform.
