Since the 2019/2020 financial year, the county council has looked after 1,398 under-18 asylum seekers.
Last financial year was a record year at 292 for ‘unaccompanied asylum seeking children’ (UASCs) and former UASCs, costing taxpayers £6.533m.
But the data shows 2023/2024 was in fact the most expensive year for the authority, spending £7.261m on 275 young parentless asylum seekers.
READ MORE: Migrants living in Oxford hotels speak out on living in UK
Costs have more than doubled in five years but the number of young asylum seekers being looked after have not.
Many of the children who are being looked after by the authority have fled wars and endured “perilous” journeys to get to the county, the council said.
Young asylum seekers are taken into care by a local authority and assigned a social worker or guardian when they arrive in the UK.
They undergo a welfare interview and checks, receive support such as cash allowances, and are provided with accommodation.
The Home Office will then process their asylum claim.
Expenditure by the county council for young, parentless asylum seekers can include costs for employees, premises-related matters, transport, supplies and services and transfer payments.
Last year, employee cost amounted to £2.122m, transport was at £45,910 and ‘third party payments’ was at £3.741m.
In all, between April 2019 and March 2025, Oxfordshire County Council spent £28,992,207 on young, parentless asylum seekers.
The most recent figures released by the Home Office have revealed there are 395 asylum seekers living in hotels in Oxfordshire.
Newly appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood leaves 10 Downing Street, London
A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said: “A young unaccompanied asylum seeker is a child under the age of 18, who is applying for asylum and has no adult relative or guardian in this country.
“Many of these children come to the UK from war zones, having endured perilous journeys, separation from their families, abuse, or trafficking.
“The government places responsibility on all local authorities to support unaccompanied asylum seekers by providing accommodation, meeting their general needs, and supporting them as care leavers when they reach the age of 18.
“In line with the ‘Safeguarding Children Who May Have Been Trafficked’ guidance from 2011, each child’s care is grant-funded to supplement the overall costs incurred by the local authorities.”
Shabana Mahmood, the new Home Secretary, is expected to unveil plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks.
The scale of the challenge facing the former justice secretary in her new role was illustrated on Saturday, when an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK by small boat over the course of the day.