Asylum seekers will have to pay back hotel accommodation costs

Migrants are set to have to pay back £10,000 towards their food and hotel costs before being eligible to settle in the UK. Sweeping new laws due to be laid before Parliament on Tuesday mean asylum seekers will have to reimburse public money spent on their accommodation and other support before they can apply for settlement. Ministers are exploring a flat rate of around £10,000, which would be paid in monthly instalments either directly to the Home Office or via the tax and benefits system. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the cost of accommodation to the taxpayer is “too high” and that it is “right that we ask those who can contribute to do so”. It comes following anti-asylum protests outside migrant hotels, with thousands of people demonstrating outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, last summer after a migrant living there was arrested and later jailed for sexual offences. Labour has promised to phase out the use of hotels as a costly form of migrant accommodation, instead using military bases across the country. The plans to recoup money from migrants for accommodation – which will be introduced under the new Immigration and Asylum Bill – would be means-tested for adults, meaning only those with sufficient funds will pay. Children who have received support from the asylum system would be exempt. It would apply prospectively only, meaning only those receiving support once the new legislation comes into effect would be liable to pay. Under the scheme, migrants must pay off the full amount before being eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which grants the permanent right to live, work and study in the UK without any time limits. Anyone who leaves the UK will have to make their payments if they wish to return in the future. “Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility,” said Mahmood, introducing the reforms. “Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.” In separate planned reforms, ministers are considering doubling the time it takes to qualify for ILR from five to 10 years for most migrant workers. These proposals would apply retrospectively for claimants already in the UK, but have prompted backlash from more than 100 Labour MPs, including former housing secretary Angela Rayner, who branded them “unfair” and “un-British”. Currently, the UK spends £4bn a year across accommodation and support for asylum seekers, which is heavily driven by the Home Office’s reliance on expensive hotel accommodation, according to the Public Accounts Committee’s analysis. Last year, border security minister Angela Eagle said that at the peak under the previous Conservative government, there were 400 hotels in use across the country at a cost of £9m a day. Labour claims to have cut asylum costs by £1bn since coming into office and is phasing out the use of migrant hotels, with 31 closed since April and hundreds of asylum seekers moving into ex-military sites. The new legislation is set to include a host of immigration reforms, including controversial proposals to increase the forced removal of people refused asylum and to introduce age checks for people claiming to be children using AI. It is also expected to limit applications for asylum under human rights laws by directing how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to family life – is applied in immigration and deportation cases. Mahmood has previously claimed that the right to family life has, in some cases, been used to block removals and undermine public confidence in the system.