Asylum seekers encouraged to move in with friends & family in latest Home office booklet after ‘don’t rape’ leaflet

ASYLUM seekers are being encouraged to move out of Home Office accommodation and stay with friends and family, The Sun can reveal. A booklet handed out to new arrivals suggests they consider the move — and offers to cover travel costs. But it raises fears that asylum seekers “can simply disappear” unless the system for monitoring their whereabouts is improved. The Sun revealed on Thursday how another pamphlet in the series warned migrants not to rape. The latest one reads: “You can stay with friends or family instead of in Home Office accommodation. “It will not impact the outcome of your asylum application, and if eligible, you will still get weekly money for food and other essential items.” READ MORE ON MIGRANT CRISIS The Home Office is under scrutiny over plans to move asylum seekers out of expensive hotels into old military camps — which can be even more costly. As an incentive to leave its sites, the leaflet says: “We may be able to help with travel costs to your new accommodation.” Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said the leaflet raises questions about how asylum seekers will be found once they leave Home Office sites. She said: “The Home Office admits it has no mechanism for finding them, which is shocking. Most read in The Sun “Unless we have a better system of monitoring their movements, they can simply disappear.” Figures show 93,653 people are in taxpayer-funded asylum accommodation, including 20,885 in hotels. Another 3,866 asylum seekers are receiving only subsistence support — meaning they have sourced their own housing — which is up 25 per cent in a year. Asylum seekers can receive £49.18 a week to cover essentials such as food and toiletries while their claims are processed, but they cannot usually work. Other booklets offered to new arrivals give advice on UK laws, such as telling them rape is illegal and the age of consent is 16. PM Andy Burnham defended the leaflets, saying: “If you break UK law, you will be removed from the country. “So it follows if we’re taking this approach, it’s made clear what the UK law is.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “There’s been no change and Home Office accommodation continues to be provided only to those asylum seekers who have nowhere else to stay. “We’ve cut costs by £1 billion since the general election and are determined to reduce the bill further.”