A petition to stop asylum seekers from getting benefits once they arrive in the UK has passed a new major milestone. Bob Clements set up the online document, writing: “This petition is to advocate a cessation of financial and other support provided to asylum seekers by the Government.” He added: “This support currently includes shelter, food, medical care (including optical and dental), and cash support. I believe that such provisions may inadvertently incentivise illegal migration, particularly via the English Channel. This petition is to urge the Government to discontinue these support measures and payments.”
At the time of writing, the petition has more than 350,000 signatures. Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate. This document has been waiting for seven days for a debate date and nine days for a Government response, according to Parliament’s website. The Government responds to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures.
The Government is aiming to cut the amount of migrants entering the UK (Image: Getty)
Mr Clements’ has been waiting for a week for this. The deadline to sign it is July 20, after it has been live for six months.
This is the case for all Parliamentary petitions.
The Home Office plans to spend about £2.2billion of foreign aid to support asylum seekers this financial year, according to new figures.
This can be done as international rules allow countries to count first-year costs of supporting refugees as overseas development assistance.
Ministers say they are “urgently taking action to restore order and reduce costs”, which will cut the amount spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
The Government also says it is expected to have saved £500million in asylum support costs in the last financial year, and that this had saved £200million in ODA which had been passed back to the Treasury.
Jo White (centre) says she does not think anything is off the table, including processing abroad. (Image: Getty)
A total of 32,345 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March this year.
This figure is down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079, and 6% lower than the 34,530 at the same point a year earlier.
Jo White, chairwoman of the Red Wall group of Labour MPs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: “We need to be looking at things like ECHR article eight. I don’t think anything’s off the table… including looking at new options such as processing abroad.
“So, we have to be open to see how we can move that backlog as quickly as possible. I’m getting impatient.
“I know my colleagues in Parliament are getting impatient and we’re pressing the Government as hard as we can on this.”
