The government scheme to put up migrants in hotels across Britain will reportedly continue for another three years despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s vow to end the practice.
The new leftist Labour Party government in Westminster has conceded that its campaign promise to “end asylum hotels” will likely take up to three years to fulfil as a result of the asylum backlog taking much longer to go through than the party had anticipated, according to a report from The Times of London.
At present, around 30,000 foreigners are being housed in over 250 hotels throughout the country, at a cost to the taxpayer of £4.2 million per day.
There are currently around 87,217 asylum claims from migrants — many of whom entered the country illegally — awaiting their first decision. Meanwhile, there are also 137,525 cases in the process of appeal or pending removal from the country.
A White Hall source told the Times that the backlog was “much worse than we thought,” adding: “It’s going to take a lot longer to clear than we anticipated. It certainly won’t be cleared in a year.”
The issue is not static, however, as illegal migrants continue to cross the English Channel at pace, with more that 25,000 arriving on British shores since the start of the year and over 10,000 since Labour came into power in July.
While the previous Tory government had intended on barring migrants from being granted asylum if they entered the country illegally, the new Labour government quickly scrapped the plan, in addition to ending the scheme to send migrants to offshore asylum processing centres in Rwanda rather than putting them up in hotels.
Within its first week in office, Starmer’s government reportedly moved to allow some 90,000 illegal boat migrants to apply for asylum, in a move branded as “effective amnesty” by former Home Secretary James Cleverly.
A separate report from the Times revealed this week that the “backlog” of asylum cases is so backed up, that there are still cases open from the Tony Blair administration, with the oldest case being nearly 17 years old.
The system is often bogged down by migrants — typically with the assistance of pro-open borders legal activist groups and attorneys — launching new claims after their initial arguments for asylum fail.
The Home Office has also struggled to track the whereabouts of many alleged asylum seekers, as they often disappear within the country and enter into the black market.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the Home Office has spent £7.9 billion in taxpayer money on the asylum system, border control, and visa management over the past three years. This was far above the estimated cost of £320 million the Home Office claimed would be needed during the time frame.
The IFS has claimed that this vast budget gap has been repeated for 2024, accusing the department of presenting spending requests it “knows to be insufficient”.
Commenting on asylum cases stemming back nearly two decades ago, a Home Office spokesman noted that some outstanding claims on the backlog list include people who are dead, in prison, or overseas.
“We are committed to speeding up the asylum process and this new government has taken urgent action to restart processing and clear the backlog to ensure that the system operates effectively,” the spokesman said.
“However, where additional security checks are needed on individual cases, criminal proceedings are ongoing or safeguarding issues are raised, it is right that the appropriate processes are followed, no matter how long that takes.”
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