Government to ban asylum seekers from using taxis

The government has announced that from February asylum seekers will be banned from using taxis to take them to medical appointments.

It comes after a BBC investigation found some people had traveled long distances by taxi, with one asylum seeker saying he had to make a 250-mile trip to a GP which cost the Home Office £600.

In response the government in September launched an urgent review of the use and cost of taxis to transfer asylum seekers from their hotels to appointments.

Now, the government has confirmed it spends an average of around £15.8 million a year on transport for asylum seekers.

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4’s File on Four found that asylum seekers were being issued bus passes for one return trip per week. For other essential journeys, such as doctor’s appointments, taxis were used, including in the case of a 250-mile trip to a GP.

And on Friday, a subcontractor told the BBC that his company would make 15 drop-offs a day from a hotel in southeast London to a doctor’s surgery about two miles away. These visits alone would cost the Home Office £1,000 a day, he said.

But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this is now going to change.

She said: “I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers to hospital appointments, authorizing them only in the most exceptional circumstances.

“I will continue to root out waste as we close every single refuge hotel.”

He said the government had inherited expensive Conservative contracts.

The minister wants asylum seekers to use alternatives such as public transport instead of taxis.

There will be some relaxations for people with physical disabilities, chronic diseases and pregnancy-related needs. Under the new rules, these will have to be signed by the Home Office.

There are other circumstances in which taxis can be used – such as movement between accommodation – but ministers are reviewing the wider use of taxis for asylum seekers and want to extend the principle that they are only used in exceptional circumstances with supporting evidence.

Ministers have promised to stop using refuge hotels until the next election. They want to increase the use of alternative housing, such as large military sites.

But figures from earlier this week showed that 36,273 people were still staying in asylum hotels in the UK – an increase on June.

There has also been criticism of the rising costs of running the refuge accommodation – which have increased significantly since the contract was signed.

When the Home Secretary was asked in a BBC interview earlier this year whether the government was prepared to use break clauses in contracts with providers, Mahmood said she would explore all options.

But doing so would mean finding alternative accommodation.

The government has also announced significant changes to reform the asylum system – refugee status has become temporary and guaranteed housing assistance for asylum seekers has ended.

The Government has recovered £74 million since coming to power – but the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee said this was only the beginning.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Phillips said: “The issue is that Labor cannot get a grip on the illegal immigration crisis.

“As Labor has raised taxes on working people by £26 billion, they have allowed the costs of illegal arrivals to rise because Labor does not have the spine to take the tough decisions needed. Namely, deporting all illegal arrivals and abandoning the ECHR. Until that happens, the bills will keep rising.”