Government is struggling to cut money amount Foreign aid budget It spends asylum seekers In the UK, show new figures.
Home office data shows that the department expects to spend £ 2.2BN Foreign development aid (ODA) This financial year, of which £ 2.1bn is expected to be spent on refuge support. The predictions for this year are slightly lower than the £ 2.4BN spent in 2024/25.
Official Development Assistance (ODA) – It was 0.3 percent to pay for protecting up to 0.3 percent of GDP earlier this year – it is used to promote economic development and welfare in developing countries around the world.
A part of this money is handed over to the Home Office to support the shelter seekers after coming to the UK, most of whom go to their residence.
But the government’s failure in cutting back on this expenditure inspired the support organizations to accuse the ministers of “looting Peter to pay Paul”, claiming that they are at risk of “careless repetition of decisions taken by the previous orthodox government”.
The data published in March has shown that the number of shelters kept in expensive hotels has increased by more than 8,000 since the general election.38,079 migrants were kept in hotels in late December.
Despite this Sir Kire Stmper, a labor government would not use foreign aid budget to pay for the costs of the asylum -seekers – but admitted that the government would not be able to stop doing so immediately.
He said, “I am not going to show you that we can do this in the first 24 hours”, he said in May 2024.
Meanwhile, Labor’s election manifesto “terminated asylum hotels, saving taxpayers billions of pounds”.
Gidon Robinovitz, director of the policy in the bond network of development organizations, warned that “UK aid is a careless repetition of the decisions taken by the previous orthodox government using it to increase the cost of the house office, using it to increase the cost of the house office.”
“Inserting £ 2.2bn of UK aid to cover the shelter housing in the UK is unstable, poor value for money, and comes at the cost of significant development and human programs dealing with the root causes of poverty, conflict and displacement.
He said, “It is necessary that we support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, but the government should not rob Peter to pay Paul”, he told the BBC.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the International Development Committee Sarah Champion said: “Aid means helping the poorest and weakest people worldwide: to reduce poverty, improve life opportunities and reduce the risk of conflict.
“In the UK, allowing the home office to spend it makes this task even more difficult.”
“The government must have a grip on assistance in the UK. The expenditure review is eventually needed to draw a line under this distorted use of taxpayer’s money, designed to keep everyone safe and rich in their homes, not inappropriate, expensive housing.”
The Home Office told the BBC that the refuge is committed to ending hotels and intensifying the refuge’s decision to save the taxpayers’ money.
The department also said that it had reduced the total refuge support cost by half a billion pounds in the last financial year, saving £ 200m in ODA that passed back to the Treasury.
In April, Independent It was revealed that the government had awarded a contract that allows the house shelters to the hotel and the barge by September 2027.Despite labor to eliminate practice.
The contract was awarded before the election cabinet Office In October 2024 – a few months later Labor won a historical landslide election – and It lasts until September 2027.
In June, the Home Secretary admitted that she was “worried about the level of money” was being spent on the residence of shelters, saying: “We need to completely eliminate the asylum hotels.”
Home office has been contacted for comment.
