Off Topic The Politics Thread
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Taxpayers Have To Cough Up Nearly £2 Billion Per Year On Hotel Rooms For Migrants
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- Taxpayers being forced to fork out approaching two billion per year on hotel rooms for migrants including thousands of illegal arrivals.
- The cost is about a £1 billion per year for 25,000 asylum claimants (including boat crossers).
- Another half a billion is being spent housing 12,000 Afghan refugees in hotels
Recently, the government confirmedthat, between April 2021 and March 2022, just under £1 billion was spent on hotel accommodation for 25,000 asylum seekers. More has likely spent since then – with illegal boat arrivals between April and mid-June totalling well over 5,000 – see our Channel Tracking Station.
The graph below shows how the number of asylum claimants in so-called initial or contingency accommodation following arrival (receiving temporary support) has risen substantially since 2018.
Figure 1: Asylum seekers receiving temporary support under Section 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Home Office statistics, May 2022.
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Yet the total number of migrants in hotels is now approaching 40,000 (when 12,000 or more Afghan refugees are added).
This total is nearly four times more than the number at the beginning of 2021 which was about 8,000. This adds to the cost of our overwhelmed and massively abused asylum system (see our recent briefing paper on this here).
Meanwhile, the government has confirmed that some Afghans were refusing to leave hotels and move to permanent homes in certain parts of the country such as Scotland or Wales, meaning the sky-high bills for taxpayers will continue (see report).
The news comes as the UK faces a huge housing crisis with homelessness on the rise and tenants facing the fastest rent rise in five years (see media report).
It was also reported that councils are being given grants to buy family homes to house refugees. The question we have is: What about the people already on housing lists? Some have been waiting nearly 10 years.
As an MP told Parliament: “The impact on housing pressure at local level could cause… tensions if there is resentment about refugees receiving housing… at a time of acute affordable housing shortage.” (Hansard).
So during a health and housing crisis, already-congested communities are being further overwhelmed, in parts of the country where residents are increasingly struggling to make ends meet and get on the housing ladder.
Previously, a senior civil servant told MPs that the cost was £1.2 million a day, equivalent to £438 million per year, as Home Secretary Priti Patel was quizzed by MPs on Channel migrant crossings (see transcript).
However, in a statement the Home Office revealed that the true figure was more likely to be £4.7 million per day, comprising £3.5 million per day for hotels for 25,000 asylum seekers (just over a billion per year), largely comprising Channel migrants, and £1.2 million per day (about half a million per year) for 12,000 Afghan refugees evacuated from Kabul.
So the government estimate of the total cost of asylum claimants and refugees in hotels is £1.7 billion per year.
The Home Office says it is close to a new deal with local councils to disperse asylum seekers. In addition, ministers are proposing to house up to 30,000 Channel migrants in temporary camps built by the army.
18th February 2022 - Asylum, Housing, Policy, Refugees
I have no idea how many are in 4 star hotels. You asked for a figure. It's £2 billion a year spent on hotel fees.
Sounds like good value by this government’s standards.
Hoteliers apparently. A hotel in Tintagel was offered, from memory, £1 million to take over the whole hotel. The owner turned it down because locals would be deprived of its use.
Very cynical of you, Bob.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/am...antine-contracts_uk_602d4732c5b6cc8bbf389f2f/
So you made two unsubstantiated claims about 4 and 5 star hotel use by asylum seekers, and now are trying to change the goalposts to overall hotel costs.
Where did you get £2bn from? The Migration Watch paper in the link below, from September this year, estimates £1.3bn.
https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/pdfs/MW509-cost-of-housing-asylum-seekers-in-hotels.pdf
Perhaps there is other, more up to date info, but I think Migration Watch, an expressly anti immigration organisation would be unlikely to underestimate.
We spend too much on housing asylum seekers, because there are too many asylum seekers. We have different perspectives and opinions on this board and in the country has a whole about our responsibilities as a nation and how to best to try to tackle this dire situation. Sensible debate isn’t helped in any way by this fake stuff you post on the issue. I know you won’t back down and apologise for misleading people, because you don’t do that. Just try to resist posting stuff you get from your Twitter algorithm if you haven’t actually checked it out.
Are you saying illegal migrants have not been accommodated in 4 star hotels? Please be clear.
See Kiwi's post above with the £2 billion figure. Why didn't you see this?
How have I mislead anyone, apart from possibly putting 5 star and not 4 star hotels, which is not material even to nit pickers like you. You've made an allegation, so please be clear with your answer.
I guess the question is how much of that £2bn, if we’re going with that, was four/five star hotels? Regardless, it’s our choice to accommodate them there.
It simply shows the scale of the problem that has to be dealt with. I believe the UK deficit is running at something like £30 bn pa. And £2 bn of that is spent on hotels for, mostly, illegal immigrants.
Money wasted? Could just burn it… well as long as someone has made a few quid.
https://committees.parliament.uk/co...-of-pandemic-will-be-burnt-to-generate-power/
https://committees.parliament.uk/co...-of-pandemic-will-be-burnt-to-generate-power/
77% of those claiming asylum are granted it, rising to 89% on appeal. Only 11% are therefore illegal.
They come here by illegal means because they have to reach the UK before they can apply for asylum and there are no legal routes, unless you're Ukrainian.
What's your source, because that appears way out, since it's been estimated that 60% of illegals are currently from Albania?
They aren’t mostly illegal though. They’re asylum seekers until proven otherwise unless you’re UKIP.
All illegals are asylum seekers. That's why they dump all their identification docs. Do you think any arrive and tell customs they're economic migrants?
But not all asylum seekers are illegals, until proven to be so. That’s the point.
If they come in illegally, they have illegal status unless and until they have their claim for asylum accepted