25,000 migrants housed in hotels cost £1.2m a day

And 12,000 Afghans who fled Taliban for new life in Britain fear they will be stuck in limbo for a year

THE number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has spiralled to 25,000 at a cost of £1.2million a day, it emerged yesterday.

Some 12,000 Afghan refugees are also living in hotels six months after the Taliban takeover of the country.

At the end of last February, just 8,700 migrants were accommodated in hotels, compared with the new total of 37,000.

The huge numbers of Afghans – including families – raises new concerns over the Government’s record on its Afghanistan programme.

Increasingly frustrated Afghans, desperate to begin new lives, say housing allocation is a ‘lottery’, and fear it may be another year before they are able to leave the hotels.

More than six months after the RAF’s historic rescue operation last August as the Taliban swept into Kabul, Afghans say they are suffering anxiety, anger and depression.

One military interpreter injured on the frontlines of Helmand said: ‘We risked our lives and our family’s lives to help the British military – we waited patiently to be relocated while we were threatened and punished by the Taliban.

‘But those who were not at risk and did nothing to help the UK are here seeking the homes which we hoped would be for us.

‘One man who has lived in the UK for many years brought his wife and five children over and goes to work each day as an Uber driver, coming back to the hotel for his bed and food. This is causing big trouble and making divisions in the hotel.’ The ex-translators’ cases have been highlighted by the Mail’s award-winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign.

Hamid Hakimi, 26, said his pregnant 19-year-old wife Maryam suffered depression and weight loss after being allocated a home in the remote town of Wick, Caithness, with no mosque, halal meat or other Afghans for support.

‘It was a disaster,’ he said, ‘I became really worried about my wife and our child. We appreciate the support and help we have been given but this caused so many problems and even the midwife said we should leave.’ He has now found housing in the Midlands.

Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee yesterday, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘No one likes this policy of hotels, no one likes this approach at all.’ She said the Home Office would need to pay more to councils so migrants can be placed in rented or social housing. ‘At the moment the top 20 areas are contributing 48

‘No one likes this policy’

per cent of dispersed asylum accommodation,’ she added.

And the minister said French President Emmanuel Macron was ‘absolutely wrong’ to suggest Britain was to blame for the Channel crisis due to a lack of legal asylum routes.

The Home Office is also planning to build reception centres to house asylum seekers.

Last month the Mail revealed that the Army will build camps to temporarily house up to 30,000 Channel migrants on Ministry of Defence land. Work is due to start this month, on a project likely to cost tens of millions of pounds.

The Home Office’s second permanent secretary Tricia Hayes told the MPs she was hopeful talks with local authorities would find a way to cut costs.

‘We have been doing a lot of work with the Local Government Association and others... on cutting the costs that we’re incurring in hotels, which is now racking up about £1.2million every single day,’ she said.

It was unclear whether the cost of the Afghans’ housing was included in the £1.2million a day figure. More than 28,300 migrants arrived from northern France last year – more than triple the number the year before. In November, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said just five had been removed in the previous 11 months.

A trade union representing Border Force workers – the Public and Commercial Services Union – is seeking an injunction in the High Court to block controversial proposals by the Home Office to ‘push back’ migrants crossing the Channel.