Asylum seekers are set to be banned from using Government-funded taxis after it was revealed taxpayers were picking up the £15.8million bill for annual travel expenses.
It follows the discovery of staggeringly extravagant journeys, including one migrant who travelled 250 miles by cab for a GP consultation about his knee, charging the Home Office £600.
The Iraqi man, identified as “Kadir”, was driven to the appointment despite preferring to travel by train earlier this year.
“Should the Home Office give me the ticket for the train? This is the easy way, and they know they spend too much money,” he told reporters at the time.
The galling use of public funds originated with an automated booking system at asylum hotels, which arranged these costly journeys without offering alternatives like public transport.
A Home Office contractor, Clearsprings Ready Homes, was paying approximately £350,000 monthly to a single taxi company for 6,000 journeys.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent review in September after these findings emerged, resulting in the new crackdown.
From February, taxi transport will now be restricted to exceptional cases, including disability, serious illness or pregnancy.
The Government had pledged to end the spurious use of taxis for asylum seekers
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However, they could also be used to transport migrants between accommodations.
Each taxi journey will also require authorisation from the Home Office.
“I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, authorising them only in the most exceptional circumstances,” the Home Secretary declared, lambasting contracts that were “wasting billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash”.
“I will continue to root out waste as we close every single asylum hotel,” she pledged.
‘I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments,’ Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced
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The latest crackdown comes as part of the desperate Government efforts to reduce asylum costs.
In her Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to end the use of “costly” hotels for asylum seekers “in this Parliament”.
She also announced extra funds would be invested in border security and cutting the asylum backlog to save the taxpayer £1billion a year.
The number of asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels has risen to 36,273 by September’s end, the highest figure in almost two years.
Overall, 111,651 individuals were receiving government-funded asylum support, whilst asylum claims reached a record 110,051 in the year to September, surpassing the previous peak of 103,081 from 2002.
Military sites, such as Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Camp in East Sussex, have been earmarked by the Government to rehouse migrants.
However, plans to begin moving hundreds of asylum seekers into these bases by December 1 have been derailed over safety concerns.
Authorities are now scrambling to establish appropriate healthcare provisions and additional policing before a single migrant can be moved in.
The Government has also declared it will end the use of asylum hotels
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Addressing the delay, a Home Office spokesman said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“Moving to large military sites is an important part of our reforms to tackle illegal migration and the pull factors that make the UK an attractive destination.
“We are continuing to accelerate plans to move people into Crowborough and Cameron Barracks, when the sites are fully operational and safe.
“We will not replicate the mistakes of the past where rushed plans have led to unsafe and chaotic situations that impacts the local community.”
