Home Office spending almost £5m PER DAY on housing asylum seekers

Home Office admits it is spending almost £5million PER DAY on housing asylum seekers in hotels – almost FOUR times the figure it gave to MPs probing Channel crossings

• Civil servant told MPs yesterday the department was spending £1.2m per day
• But Home Office confirmed that Tricia Hayes gave number after ‘drafting error’
• It said £4.7m per day was being spent to house 37,000 people in UK hotels

The Home Office was forced today to admit it is spending £4.7million every day on housing asylum seekers in hotels – four times as much as it has previously admitted.

The department was forced to issuing a correction after a senior civil servant at the department yesterday told MPs the figure was £1.2million per day, as Priti Patel was quizzed on Channel crossings.

In fact the figure given by Tricia Hayes to the Home Affairs Committee related only to Afghan refugees.

An additional £3.5 million a day is being spent, the Government said, in accommodating asylum seekers from elsewhere. 

It is understood the incorrect total arose from a drafting error. There are 25,000 asylum seekers and 12,000 Afghan refugees in hotels, making a total of 37,000, the Home Office also clarified.

This works out at a cost of £127 per person per day. 

The figure given by Tricia Hayes to the Home Affairs Committee related only to Afghan refugees, the Home Office said today

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the policy is ‘thoroughly inadequate’, adding: ‘We do not want people in hotels.’ 

More than 200 migrants reached the UK in seven boats on January 26 as Border Force agents arrived into dover after picking up those who had crossed the Channel

A spokesman said: ‘The use of hotels is unacceptable. It is a short-term solution to the global migration crisis and we are working hard to find appropriate dispersed accommodation for migrants, asylum seekers and Afghan refugees as soon as possible.

‘We would urge local authorities to do all they can to help house people permanently.

‘Our New Plan for Immigration, which is going through Parliament now, will fix the broken asylum system, enabling us to remove those with no right to be here more quickly.’

At Wednesday’s committee session, MPs were told that the Government is ‘optimistic’ it will find a new way of working with councils ‘on how we manage these costs’.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the policy is ‘thoroughly inadequate’, adding: ‘We do not want people in hotels.’

She also said the Government and local authorities are ‘absolutely struggling’ to move Afghan refugees into more suitable, permanent accommodation as the country does not have sufficient infrastructure.

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