Refugees: Afghanistan

(asked on 18th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether an impact assessment has been undertaken by her Department on its decision to stop providing Afghan refugees staying in hotels with free access to non-basic toiletries and over-the-counter medication.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 28th February 2022

The UK Government undertook the biggest and fastest emergency evacuation in recent history, helping over 15,000 people to safety from Afghanistan. Due to the scale and pace of the evacuation we were not able to source appropriate accommodation in the normal way, so we have had to use hotels as a temporary measure.

We do not want to keep families or individuals in temporary accommodation any longer than they need to be. It is important that they move into more permanent settled accommodation so that they can begin to rebuild their lives here in the UK. Over 4000 Afghans have already moved, or are in the process of being moved, into their permanent accommodation.

We are grateful to those local authorities who have already stepped forward to offer accommodation and we would like to encourage those local authorities who have not yet pledged support to consider offering to do so.

Afghans still temporarily accommodated in hotels are provided with meals and have access to healthcare, education, as well as support to seek employment opportunities or claim Universal Credit.

Until 11th February 2022 as well as accommodation and meals, additional items such as non-essential toiletries and over-the-counter medication were provided free of charge to guests in hotels as an interim measure before the grant of Universal Credit to them. However, these items are no longer being provided for those guests who are in receipt of Universal Credit. It is expected that the provision of Universal Credit will cover the cost of these items. This is in line with the approach taken to those in the UK population in receipt of Universal Credit. Meals, baby milk and baby food will continue to be provided.

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