£1M A DAY SPENT ON ASYLUM SEEKERS
BRITAIN is spending almost £1million every day to house and feed asylum seekers and refugees with foreign aid cash, we can reveal today.
Ministers insist the UK’s bloated foreign aid budget is critical because it supports infrastructure projects in developing countries.
But the “majority” of the £362million the Home Office contributes to it each year is swallowed up by supporting migrants, the department has admitted. It means that British
taxpayers are shouldering the burden of providing bed and board for tens of thousands of newcomers, many of whom have arrived here illegally.
The outlay could have paid for almost 17,000 new staff nurses last year alone.
Ukip MEP and home affairs spokeswoman Jane Collins said last night: “Part of the job of the Home Office is to protect our borders not to fund those who illegally slip through them.
“This money should be spent on beefing up our Border Force not on polishing our halos. [Home Secretary] Amber Rudd has to explain how looking after illegal immigrants in the UK can be described as international aid.”
The details of the asylum aid package which sees cash handed to those who have newly arrived in the UK comes as the Daily Express receives widespread support for our Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade.
Britain spends £13.3billion a year on official development assistance, commonly known as foreign aid. Three-quarters comes via the Department for International Development with the remaining £3.5billion shared across Whitehall.
The Home Office, the department responsible for securing our borders from illegal immigration, has confirmed the lion’s share of its foreign aid commitment is spent on asylum support and the Syrian Vulnerable People Resettlement Scheme.
Asylum support provides generous concessions to those who want to claim asylum here.
The resettlement scheme aims to relocate 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey by 2020.
Asylum support gives a lifeline to those fleeing persecution and in genuine need of sanctuary.
But even those who have managed to reach the UK illegally, many through the migrant flashpoint of Calais, are provided with somewhere to live, a cash allowance or both while their claims are processed.
Under current rules each individual pockets £36.95 a week but even those who have been refused asylum get £35.39 on a payment card for food, clothing and toiletries.
Pregnant migrants can apply for a one-off £300 maternity payment if the baby is due in eight weeks or less or if the baby is under six weeks old.
Claimants also get free NHS treatment while their children are found school places and given free meals.
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe said: “It is sickening to have over 7,000 UK veterans homeless while the Government spends £1million a day on housing for asylum seekers, including illegals, and offers council houses to IS terrorists. When will the needs of British poor and vulnerable be put first? I support the Daily Express campaign on foreign aid to readdress this issue.”
Our campaign demands Prime Minister Theresa May slashes the arbitrary annual commitment of spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on foreign aid and redirects cash to under pressure frontline services.
It has so far received the backing of 30,000 readers and a string of influential MPs, including Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg.
James Price, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “We have an obligation to help those in genuine need, but the Government also has a responsibility to Britons who are forking out hundreds of millions of pounds.”
The new funding scandal comes as the number of people claiming asylum in the UK, including their dependents, stood at 39,400 last year, equivalent to 108 a day.
Most come from Iran, Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and Syria with many simply disappearing underground once they arrive. In a recent report David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said: “Asylum casework managers told us there were 10,000 asylum claims where the claimant and dependants were not in contact with the Home Office or had absconded.”
He added: “While teams could conduct residential visits to attempt to trace absconders, they were reluctant to do so as this work was not a priority and was considered a drain on resources.”
The Home Office said: “The majority of the ODA budget is spent on asylum support and the Syrian Vulnerable People Resettlement Scheme. The spend helps protect vulnerable people from these countries here in the UK.”