Asylum Hotels and Illegal Channel Crossings Debate

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Department: Home Office

Asylum Hotels and Illegal Channel Crossings

Alex Sobel Excerpts
Tuesday 25th March 2025

(4 days, 15 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

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Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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Our aim is to close asylum hotels and get out of what we feel is an unsustainable situation as quickly as practicable.

Alex Sobel Portrait Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)
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I am sure that the Minister agrees that one of the root causes of this crisis was the last Government’s politically motivated actions, first slowing down and then freezing the processing of asylum applications. I have asylum seekers waiting 10 or more years for a decision. The British public want to see a contribution by asylum seekers to the system, reducing the public burden on taxpayers, so has the Minister considered lifting the ban on work so that people waiting more than six months for a decision can contribute to our tax system until a decision is made?

Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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Asylum seekers who wait longer than a year are allowed to work, so long as that wait has not been caused by them—that is, a wait through no fault of their own. We have that system now, and I am not considering shortening the length of time that must elapse before work is allowed.