https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5yrn0rn0lo
The estimated costs of accommodation for asylum seekers in Northern Ireland has risen to £400m, four times the original estimate.
That is according to a report by the UK Spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO)., external
The NAO has examined the Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts across the UK.
In 2019, the Conservative government signed seven regional contracts with three private companies – Serco, Mears and Clearsprings – to help house asylum seekers.
In Northern Ireland, asylum accommodation is provided by Mears.
The UK has a legal commitment to support people seeking asylum, while it makes a decision on their asylum claim, by providing financial support and accommodation.
The NAO has looked at the amount the government has spent and is likely to spend on accommodation for asylum seekers in the decade from 2019 – 2029.
The Home Office originally estimated that the total cost of the contract in Northern Ireland for 2019-2029 would be £100m.
But according to the NAO, the Home Office's latest estimate for the cost in Northern Ireland from 2019-2029 is £400m.
In 2024-25 alone, the cost to the Home Office of asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland was £55m.
'System in chaos'
A Home Office spokesperson told BBC News NI the Labour government has "inherited an asylum system in chaos" with tens of thousands of people stuck in backlog, unprocessed claims and "disastrous contracts that were wasting millions in taxpayer money".
"We've taken immediate action to fix it – increasing asylum decision making by 52% and removing 24,000 people with no right to be here, meaning there are now fewer asylum hotels open than since the election," they added.
By "restoring grip on the system" with speedier decision making, the Home Office said it hopes to end of use of hotels and are forecast "to save the taxpayer £4 billion by the end of 2026".
On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer outlined his government's plans to "tighten up" the immigration system, promising these will cause migration numbers to fall significantly.
Keir Starmer is looking into the camera and is gesturing with his hand. He has grey hair brushed to the side. He is wearing black rimmed glasses, a black suit, black tie and white shirt. he is standing in front of a large red, white and blue Union Jack flag.Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has proposed those seeking visas should undergo an English language test
People can be housed in hotels or "dispersed accommodation" (DA) like houses or flats while they wait for the government to make a decision on their claims for asylum.
The NAO report, which was commissioned by Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, says the number of asylum seekers in paid-for accommodation increased from around 47,000 in December 2019 to 110,000 in December 2024.
According to the NAO, there were 2,741 people in asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland in December 2024.
That included 413 people in hotels and 2,328 people in other accommodation.
Northern Ireland has the lowest number of people in asylum accommodation of the seven regions of the UK where the Home Office has regional contracts.
But according to the NAO, asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland is among the most profitable in the UK, with a profit margin of 15% for the supplier.
The NAO says that in total the three companies made a combined profit of £383m on asylum accommodation contracts between September 2019 and August 2024.
The Labour government has recently said that visa applications from nationalities thought most likely to overstay and claim asylum in the UK could be restricted.
by sn33df33ds33d
25 comments
2,741 people……
And London pays the bill….
Not exactly the big scary issue some would try to have you believing it is…….
Great news- fantastic to hear of the healthy 15% profit margins the contractors are getting – best in the UK-yeeooo
Sure £400m is nothing when compared to the value the asylum people bring to society.
Sure the health and education sector don’t need any of this £400m so fantastic to hear it’s being utilised
Lots of numbers in this article.
£400m is the projected cost of asylum accommodation in NI for the 10 years between 2019 – 2029.
The cost last year was £55m.
In December last year there were 2,741 people in asylum accommodation here. If that figure is typical for year round numbers you could estimate that:
-it costs £20k to house one migrant for one year
-it costs £1,670 to house one migrant for one month
-it costs £385 to house one migrant for one week
-it costs £55 to house one migrant for one night
Outrage abated.
How are people making any profit off this, let alone almost £400 million??
Almost like this whole thing is a scam and it isn’t about humanitarian aid for refugees at all.
I would question why costs are so high and how property companies and hotels are making an absolute fortune out of the misery of others. Maybe if over the last 20 years there had been investment in affordable housing for all and building facilities to house asylum seekers we would not be in this mess
tl;dr
OP is a racist that obsessively posts about immigration on this sub.
400 mill could have built casement park fs. 😜😜😜
wouldnt be as many in hotels etc if loyalists didnt keep burning them out
£400 million of our money spent on people who have contributed nothing in tax here and are not from here. Ask any questions though and you’re racist.
Send them home (assuming we know where they come from as they’re quite adept at “losing” their documentstion en route), no alleged refugees or asylum seekers to house, end of scam. Simple, really.
£400m in incentives for human traffickers.
So is that less or more than Arlene’s RHI scandal? Or is it more or less than the shite track or trace bullshit during covid? Or what about the cost of brexit? How about the bill for those in society scamming the benefits system? Every year the zeitgeist shifts and we are footing the bill for incompetent, corrupt, waste of oxygen politicians. I wish we had half the balls that the French do when it comes to protests. We are getting shafted every day with the rising costs and we are too busy getting full and arguing about Religion. Fuck this place
Send them all back…sick of all these do gooders waving their Palestine flags etc.. from a Catholic from Dublin 🇮🇪 🤝 🇬🇧
Just insulting to anyone stuck in the NHS backlog, desperately waiting on a house, or down on their luck here.
Can’t get a GP appointment and can’t even get a dentist anymore.
But yet 55 million last year to spunk on what we all know are economic migrants who are given everything for nothing. Is that just on the housing and do they get handouts on top of that?
I doubt anyone here has anything against helping the few genuine ones, but this shit is infuriating.
Anyone who did the Australia working holiday thing knows they turned up, got the cheapest accommodation which was a 16 person shared dorm and you went out and got job. There was no burden.
Can’t have an open border with R.O.I and expect to control migration. Square that circle republicans!
It would be a lot less if the asylum applications and subsequent applicable removals where processed in the 6 months they are meant to be.
Just remember folks the boat people are not the problem. The chronic underfunding of the administration is.
Another contrived crisis that is rooted in public money going to private companies while the public’s anger is misdirected away from those at fault.
Further reminder that these costs are going up constantly, directly because successive governments want to make a show of “tackling immigration” to no effect beyond sating head-the-balls with a nice headline. Who regularly eat this shite up.
So now the process is longer, not necessarily any more stringent, and the need for accomodation increases owing to these longer processions and the costs go up.
Yet still, the anger is directed at the people given 8 quid a week instead of the private companies whose whole existence and bottom line is built around pilfering public money. Even though there are countless examples of these companies bleeding several public sectors and constantly angling for more of the public pie.
I’m a social democratic and progressive and inclusive but we are only fuelling the far right with the approach being adopted by our asylum policies. It is an open house for chancers and it is obviously being abused by people.
Send. Them. Back.
Am of the opinion that the world upheaval since Covid is directly linked to Russian string pulling.
Wars all over the place and each of the big counties are all suffering from poor economic development that fuels their power and growth.
Changing of the guard possibly
Follow the money, look at who’s pocketing it and ask if they’re taking the proverbial.
The UK and Ireland are signatories to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol,
.
As a signatory, the UK and Ireland are obligated to accommodate and consider asylum applications from those claiming to be fleeing persecution who arrive in either jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, the recent emergence of sophisticated and highly organized criminal trafficking gangs have industrialized movement of peoples and created an upsurge in claimants which far outstrips the capacity of the current system (as it presently exists) to process individual applications in a fair , efficient and timely manner.. Rendering the process of either awarding asylum or rejecting it on the merits of individual application one that stretches into years. While those wheels slowly turn, those in the system are effectively in a sort of economically inactive limbo – completely reliant on tax payer funded accommodation and welfare..
The system needs drastic reform. One that ensues genuinely imperiled people receive the help and refuge they need to rebuild their lives but one that also safely returns those found to be fraudsters . Reducing the burden of expenses, resources expounded and opportunistic property management companies who cash in and take advantage.
Grand, more of the third world on their way it seems. https://x.com/IOMEthiopia/status/1917833928691339735?t=m-eafunH8Ud9_LUlJvizcQ&s=19
What a shitshow
Absolutely outrageous this is all being provided by private companies. They overcharge the hell out of the government getting these contracts and it is within their interests for thouasands of asylum seekers to be coming over as they will get more ££££.
This is an absolute fucking joke!
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