he Authorities is spending £4.7 million a day housing asylum seekers in inns – virtually 4 instances the determine it beforehand informed MPs the Dwelling Workplace has mentioned.
On Wednesday the Dwelling Affairs Committee heard the overall was £1.2 million, however a Authorities clarification on Thursday made clear this determine pertains to Afghan refugees.
An extra £3.5 million a day is being spent, the Authorities mentioned, in accommodating asylum seekers from elsewhere.
It’s understood the inaccurate complete, offered to the committee by a Dwelling Workplace official, arose from a drafting error.
There are 25,000 asylum seekers and 12,000 Afghan refugees in inns, making a complete of 37,000, the Dwelling Workplace additionally clarified.
Based mostly on the figures offered, this works out at an estimated £127 per particular person in a resort day by day on common.
At this stage, it might price £1.7 billion a 12 months, though totals are prone to fluctuate all through that point interval.
A spokesman mentioned: “Using inns is unacceptable. It’s a short-term answer to the worldwide migration disaster and we’re working arduous to search out acceptable dispersed lodging for migrants, asylum seekers and Afghan refugees as quickly as potential.
“We might urge native authorities to do all they’ll to assist home folks completely.
“Our New Plan for Immigration, which goes by Parliament now, will repair the damaged asylum system, enabling us to take away these with no proper to be right here extra rapidly.”
At Wednesday’s committee session, MPs had been informed that the Authorities is “optimistic” it can discover a new means of working with councils “on how we handle these prices”.
Dwelling Secretary Priti Patel mentioned the coverage is “totally insufficient”, including: “We don’t want folks in inns.”
She additionally mentioned the Authorities and native authorities are “completely struggling” to maneuver Afghan refugees into extra appropriate, everlasting lodging because the nation doesn’t have ample infrastructure.
Enver Solomon, chief govt of the Refugee Council, mentioned: “Using inns just isn’t solely totally insufficient, because the Dwelling Secretary informed MPs yesterday, it’s also inflicting actual hurt to males, ladies and youngsters who’ve come to our shores searching for security.
“They’ve needed to battle to get the essential necessities they want resembling clothes and medicines having been left for months on finish with out ample assist inflicting them big nervousness and misery.
“It’s an extremely pricey and failed technique that could possibly be simply fastened through the use of public cash extra successfully to deal with folks in our communities and permit them the suitable to work.”
