Migrants housed in asylum hotels have described being sent hundreds of miles by taxi for medical appointments, at huge cost to the taxpayer. A failed asylum seeker in an unnamed hotel used by the Home Office told the BBC he had been sent on a 250-mile, £600 taxi ride for a knee check-up.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asked officials to 'urgently look into' the use of taxis after the claims emerged. Other migrants in hotels visited by the broadcaster said they were working in Britain, despite being barred from taking employment.
One Iraqi man, identified by the pseudonym ‘Kadir’ to protect his identity, said he would have preferred to have gone to his NHS appointment by train. But he ‘had no choice’ other than to accept the transportation laid on by the Home Office. The taxi journeys take place because when migrants move between hotels they sometimes keep the same NHS doctors, the broadcaster said.
Kadir’s journey was to see a consultant who had treated him at his old address, and the driver told him the round-trip had cost £600. ‘Should the Home Office give me the ticket for the train? This is the easy way, and they know they spend too much money,’ said Kadir. ‘We know as well, but we don't have any choice. It's crazy.’
Migrants were not offered the option to travel by public transport, or to walk, to the appointments and taxis were booked by an ‘automated system’ at the hotel front desk, it was reported. At the end of June there were just over 32,000 in taxpayer-funded hotels, up eight per cent in a year. The Home Office has also said an all-time high of 111,084 asylum applications were lodged in the year to June, up 14 per cent on the previous 12 months.
Despite increasing numbers, Labour has said it will close all migrant hotels by 2029. In August Epping Forest District Council won a temporary High Court injunction to stop migrants being placed at The Bell hotel, in Epping. But the Home Office successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, and the hotel remains open pending any further legal action.
