{"id":405557,"date":"2025-09-07T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405557\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:32:16","slug":"home-office-to-fork-out-on-ready-meals-and-crisps-for-channel-migrants-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405557\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Office to fork out on ready meals and crisps for Channel migrants | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money is set to go on ready meals, snacks and crisps for migrants when they are screened for asylum. Over the next three years, the Home Office will provide migrants who have arrived in the UK on dinghies<\/a> or through other illegal routes with a variety of sandwiches, drinks and prepared dishes. The government has issued a contract primarily targeted at \u201casylum intake\u201d centres which are in Croydon, south London, Kent and Belfast.<\/p>\n

These units are Home Office<\/a> facilities where migrants who have entered the UK go to if they wish to claim asylum. Here, they will undergo screening and registration procedures. In the government document, the contract says it\u2019s expected to begin in January 2026 and carry on through to January 2028. There is also an option for a one year extension.<\/p>\n

The supplier awarded with the contract will be responsible for providing catering services, snacks, prepared meals and sandwiches, vegetables, fruits and nuts, labelling machines, and meal preparation and delivery services.<\/p>\n

While there is no cost on the document at the moment, current industry estimates suggest it could cost up to \u00a32.4 million, The Telegraph reports. This would be the cost of providing catering services and two meals a day to 40,000 migrants.<\/p>\n

On Friday Shabana Mahmood took over from Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary after Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s first major reshuffle. Under Ms Cooper, more than 52,000 migrants made the perilous journey across the Channel in just 14 months.<\/p>\n

Some 32,345 asylum seekers are living in hotels, while 66,683 are living in houses, flats and bedsits across the country.<\/p>\n

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: \u201cThe Home Office is only having to budget millions to feed and house asylum seekers because of Labour\u2019s borders crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Labour government promised to stop Channel crossings and end the use of asylum hotels, yet record numbers of dinghies full of illegal immigrants are arriving on our shores \u2013 who are then housed and fed at taxpayers\u2019 expense. This is an insult to hard-working families who are struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the Conservatives<\/a>, with our Deportation Bill, have a credible plan to end this madness by ending the Human Rights Act for immigration matters and deporting all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival. Then they won\u2019t need to be fed or housed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money is set to go on ready meals, snacks and crisps for migrants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2527,15442,2946,8610,5804,12,139758,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-405557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-asylum-seekers","10":"tag-channel-crossings","11":"tag-english-channel-migrant-crossings","12":"tag-home-office","13":"tag-migrant-crisis","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-ready-meals","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115163742040359416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}