Undocumented Migrants: Housing

(asked on 23rd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total cost to the public purse was of providing accommodation for migrants who illegal crossed the English Channel to the UK since 2019.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 1st March 2022

The Home Office does not accommodate illegal migrants, but does have a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.

The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 24 February 2022. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in May 2022. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in specific accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Costs are subject to change depending on numbers being accommodated within the asylum system. Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts

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