Taxpayers shelled out ￡6.6 billion on asylum seeker and refugee support schemes including trips to the zoo and tennis lessons, a Sunday Express investigation has revealed.
Sandwich deliveries, friendship services and even a visit to Sir Keir Starmer’s beloved Arsenal football stadium were also included in programmes to help them “integrate” into British life. The massive cost was racked up in 200 government and local council-funded schemes during the past five years.
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Critics slammed the “bonkers” expenditure and said much of the money should have been spent on improving public services and communities instead. But the Refugee Council insisted that cutting them would leave refugees isolated, communities divided and the taxpayer poorer.
A dossier of information, handed to this newspaper by Reform UK, lifted the lid on the sheer scale and cost of the support schemes.
One contract detailed the “self-sufficient” Wethersfield Asylum Accommodation site, where arrivals were greeted with ￡20,620 worth of sports coaches and equipment for activities such as volleyball, tennis and athletics, four times a day, three days a week.
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Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of pounds has been dedicated to “befriending schemes” where asylum seekers and refugees were allocated a ‘mentor’. Upon arrival to Bristol, Hull and the London borough of Newham, a befriender will be provided to each adult with the aim of promoting confidence building.
Organised group activities have included trips to London Zoo, Kew Gardens and Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. Other contracts included sandwich delivery services worth almost ￡50,000. The value of each lunch was ￡4.45 with options including chicken, egg and mayo, with veggie and vegan selections too.
These were supplied weekly for refugees in both the Croydon and Kent Intake Units. An eye-popping ￡1.1million has also been spent on SIM cards for mobile phones, with the Home Office placing an initial order of 2,000 - with each one required to have “at least 60GB data”.
READ MORE: Elon Musk supports Reform's Rupert Lowe on Trump-style deportation tactics
For comparison, most people used an average of 8GB of data per month in 2022 according to Ofcom. At the same time, nearly half a million pounds was spent on bus passes in Bristol, named in December as one of the UK’s top 10 cities for pedestrians, as the Home Office awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds to communication companies to conduct research studies on better understanding asylum seeker’s “needs”.
The extensive list of contracts covered a variety of other areas where expenditure was of great significance. The largest cost to the taxpayer was for accommodation, amounting to billions, with the furnishing of these dwellings totalling ￡2,388,000.
Support, assessments and services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children also tallied a high number. Rupert Lowe MP, who helped Reform UK achieve its best election result last summer, said he believes local communities have been “destroyed” despite “integration” being at the forefront of the initiatives.
“If someone landed from out of space, they’d say we've gone bonkers,” Mr Lowe told the Sunday Express. “We've got these ridiculous contracts where we're handing out money to groups who have never contributed to our society… Is that logic? I think it’s lunacy.”
The MP for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk added: “It's causing all sorts of fractions in what were very stable local communities.” He believes many asylum seekers “often have a different view of women, culturally - they're culturally different to us”.
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Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said cutting these schemes would be a “false economy” and would have a negative effect on the UK.
He added: “I know refugees from all over the world who make amazing contributions to their communities and to our country. Many are success stories. Working in the NHS, running businesses that create jobs or working on our high streets.
“But when they arrived here, they needed help to unlock their skills and potential. Help to speak English, make friends or, when they received permission, to find a job and somewhere to rent. We all need a bit of help sometimes.”
But highlighting the ￡1.1million spent on English language classes, Mr Lowe explained how authorities “are spending fortunes on translation”, which he said “is wrong”. “If you come to live in our country, you live by our laws, you live by our codes, and also, you speak our language,” he said.
“If you can't do that, then either use AI or you can pay for your own translator, but I don't see why the honest decent British taxpayer should be funding all this nonsense.”
The contracts have been awarded since 2019 under both the Conservative and Labour governments, both of whom Mr Lowe blamed for the colossal cost to the taxpayer.
“Neither of those parties are staffed by people who are capable of holding the civil service to account,” he said. “As a result of that we've got this woke movement which has effectively undermined the people they're supposed to be serving, which is the British taxpayer.”
Alp Mehmet, the chair of Migrant Watch UK, echoed the concerns of Mr Lowe, saying the “British people deserve better”.
The Daily Express has outlined the most “bizarre” contracts:
Friendship services in Bristol, ￡211,200.
Friendship services in the London Borough of Newham, ￡60,000.
Friendship services in Hull, ￡37,560.
Sports activities for the Wethersfield Asylum Accommodation, ￡20,620.
Integration activities in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, ￡105,000.
Activities coordinator in Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, ￡27,070.
Easter Holiday Activities in Redditch Borough & Bromsgrove District Councils, ￡42,000.
Sandwich deliveries in the Croydon Intake Unit, ￡34,000.
Sandwich deliveries in the Kent Intake Unit, ￡13,650.
‘Woke’ research study on improving asylum support and needs - ￡229,920.
‘Woke’ research study into the lived experiences of refugee and asylum seeking, ￡225,090.
‘Woke’ research study into the decision-making of asylum seekers, ￡199,337.45.
‘Woke’ research study into international approaches to promoting the integration, ￡10,4751.51.
SIM Cards for asylum seekers in accommodation without WiFi - ￡560,000.
SIM Cards for data usage only for asylum seekers, ￡528,000.
Bus passes for refugees in Bristol, ￡264,000.
Bus passes for refugees in Bristol, ￡90,000.
Bus passes for refugees in Bristol, ￡72,300.
English language classes for resettled refugees in Nottingham, ￡546,760.
English language classes for resettled refugees in Herefordshire, ￡434,226.
English language classes for refugees in Coventry, ￡116,000.
English language classes for refugees in Torbay, ￡72,480.
Awareness training in Sunderland for council staff who engage with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, ￡26,364.
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“This is a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money which could have been avoided by firm action early on,” he adds.
“It was allowed to surge out of control under the Tories and is now being made worse by Keir Starmer’s Government, by their absurd focus on foreign gangs and removing what deterrence there was.”
Father-of-four Mr Lowe, 67, has been steadfast in his backing of the Trump-style method of “detain and deport”, explaining how those who arrive in Britain illegally should be “processed offshore” on “some obscure island”.
The businessman, a former chairman of Southampton FC, has called for the “return of common sense”, using the US President and his “anti-woke” agenda as an example that Britain should be following.
He added: “Elon Musk is performing an incredibly valuable role for Donald Trump in exposing the oxygen that gives life to all of this nonsense.”
New figures last week showed a total of 108,138 people applied for asylum in the UK in 2024, the highest number for any 12 month period since current records began in 2001.
Enver Solomon, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council
For generations the UK has welcomed refugees who've lost everything due to war and terror they've had to flee
From Ukrainians to Syrians to Afghans and to those who have fled conflicts many years back in the Balkans, we know that the faster refugees integrate, the faster they contribute to British life and the public purse.
This is exactly why it is essential for all Brits, that councils help newly arrived refugees to speak English, get to know local people and find work.
Cutting this assistance would be a false economy, that would leave refugees isolated, communities divided and the taxpayer poorer.
Some claim that refugees or migrants ‘can’t’ or ‘won’t’ integrate.
But working at the Refugee Council, I know that’s a million miles from reality.
We have been running services for refugees since we were set up in the aftermath of World War Two.
We know from decades of experience that refugees are hugely grateful to this country for providing them sanctuary and want to repay that by working hard.
They have an incredibly strong work ethic – just think of the huge contribution made by refugees who fled the Nazis or those who had fled the Ugandan despot Idi Amin.
I know refugees from all over the world who make amazing contributions to their communities and to our country.
Many are success stories. Working in the NHS, running businesses that create jobs or working on our high streets.
But when they arrived here, they needed help to unlock their skills and potential. Help to speak English, make friends or, when they received permission, to find a job and somewhere to rent.
We all need a bit of help sometimes. It’s right that charities and councils provide it for those who arrived as refugees with nothing and no-one.
Without help to rebuild their lives, we risk leaving refugees and their families living on the margins unable to fulfil their potential and not contributing to our national prosperity.
It was an 18% hike since 2023, according to figures published by the Home Office.
Despite the number allowed to stay dropping to 39,600, the total being housed in hotels has increased to 38,079 despite Labour's pledge to end their use.
More than 1,000 migrants arrived in the UK on small boats in the first four days of this month, taking the total arrivals for the year so far to more than 3,200.
Jonathan Eida, researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance, labelled the schemes as “bizarre”, claiming that councils should be focusing taxpayers’ money on local issues such as rubbish collection.
He said: "Brits will be enraged that their money is going towards these contracts.
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"Taxpayers expect councils to spend their hard-earned cash on fixing potholes and collecting bins, not bizarre befriending schemes for asylum seekers.
"Town hall bosses should focus on what matters to residents, not throw money at those who shouldn't be in the country in the first place.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government is required by law to provide support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, but we are determined to ensure value for money in all future contracts, and have introduced new controls to minimise non-essential spending which were not in place when the majority of these contracts were signed under the previous government.“Overall, we are determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly, and it remains our commitment to cut the costs of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels over time."