Asylum seekers to pay back taxpayer-funded support and accommodation – but only if they can afford it

Asylum seekers will be forced to pay back the cost of support and accommodation but only if they can afford it.

The Immigration and Asylum Bill aims to recover costs from adults who have received asylum support, such as subsistence or accommodation, provided they have access to sufficient funds.

According to Labour, the payment will take the form of a flat-rate charge, with eligible adults paying off an amount each month above a set threshold.

Other reforms set to be laid out on Tuesday include creating a "single route" that prevents migrants from appealing against a rejected claim and bringing further claims about new matters before their removal.

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Migrants need settled status, or Indefinite Leave to Remain, to be able to permanently live, work, and study in the UK.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the cost to the British taxpayer as "too high".

She said: "We have already reduced asylum costs by £1billion, but it is also right that we ask those who can contribute to do so."

“Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility. Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”

Asylum seekers are expected to have to pay a total of around £10,000, but Ms Mahmood will be able to adjust the amount, the Home Office said.

Those liable for the cost who leave the UK will be made to pay in full if they want to come back at a future date, the department added.

Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said it was likely that only a relatively small share of people granted asylum would actually earn enough to pay towards the scheme.

She continued: "The data suggests that unless thresholds were significantly below the minimum wage, a relatively small share of people granted asylum would earn enough to make contributions to the scheme."

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Zoe Dexter, from the Helen Bamber Foundation human rights charity, said the plan amounted to “more performative cruelty from the Government”.

“Charging refugees around £10,000 once they finally find work is the opposite of integration,” she said.

“These are people who have fled persecution and extreme violence, often arriving with nothing, before spending months or years in overcrowded, dilapidated accommodation, sometimes facing intimidation and violent protests outside the places they are housed.

“Burdening them with debt just as they begin rebuilding their lives is grossly unjust and entirely self-defeating.”

Meanwhile, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "It is flattering that Labour have adopted yet another policy put forward by the Conservative Party.

"This precise scheme was proposed by us in an amendment to the Immigration Bill last year, which Labour blocked."

Imran Hussain, of the Refugee Council, added: "Imposing what amounts to an extra tax on refugees, who the Home Office accepts have arrived here after fleeing persecution, torture and war, is unfair, impractical and make it much harder for families to rebuild their lives and stand on their own feet.

"The reason why many need asylum support is because the Home Office itself bans asylum seekers from working while their claims are being assessed. Asylum support is only given to people who are at risk of being destitute, so this new financial burden would only harm those who arrive on our shores with nothing."

It comes as campaigners who successfully fought-off a plan to house migrants at a former military barracks in their isolated village say they are “gobsmacked” the plan has been resurrected and vowed to fight it all over again.

Labour announced on Thursday night that the RAF facility at Linton-on-Ouse, in North Yorkshire, would be part of new plan to accommodate 3,750 asylum seekers at Ministry of Defence sites.

This comes four years after there were celebrations in the Yorkshire village when the then-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace scrapped proposals to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at the disused site, following a high-profile local campaign against the plan.

On Friday, when one of those campaigners, Professor Olga Matthias, was asked for her reaction to the new plan, she said: "I can scream. Is that good enough? Who knew that stupidity has such a big, long shelf life?"

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