The number of failed asylum seekers disappearing from migrant hotels on a daily basis is ‘terrifying’, a whistleblower has claimed.
A contractor working at multiple properties in England where migrants are being housed has told of ‘chaos’ amid an alleged lack of monitoring.
The number of asylum seekers living in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense has jumped to more than 36,000, the highest level for almost two years.
Latest data from the Home Office showed 36,273 migrants were in hotel accommodation at the end of September, up 4,232 from 32,041 at the end of June.
In all there were 111,651 people receiving taxpayer-funded asylum support, an increase of nearly 5,600 in three months but below the peak of just under 124,000 hit in September 2023.
The Home Office said a record 110,051 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending to September – up 13 per cent on the previous year and seven per cent more than the previous peak of 103,081 in 2002.
This made it a new record high after a previous figure of 111,000 for the year to June was revised down slightly.
The unnamed contractor has now opened up to Sky News about his concerns, saying many new arrivals without documents were going missing.
He said: ‘When someone gets to about a week away from the hotel, they’re processed as an absconder.
‘Nothing really happens there. They get marked as “left the hotel” and a notification is sent to the Home Office.
‘It’s at least weekly – most of the time it can be daily.’
He outlined details of what happens when asylum seekers arrive at hotels providing accommodation, saying: ‘They get given a date that they need to move out by.
‘You would expect immigration enforcement to go to the hotel to pick these people up. You would expect them to not even be told that they failed their asylum claim.
‘You would expect them to just be collected from the hotel – that doesn’t happen.
‘For those people to freely be allowed, undetected and unchecked, on the streets of this country is terrifying.’
A Home Office spokesperson said in response: ‘This government will end the use of hotels and have introduced major reforms to the asylum system, to scale up removals of people with no right to be here and address the factors drawing illegal migrants to the UK in the first place.
‘Nearly 50,000 people with no right to be in our country have been removed and enforcement arrests to tackle illegal working are at the highest level in recent history.
‘A dedicated team in the Home Office works with police, across government and commercial companies to trace absconders. Failure to return to a hotel can also lead to asylum claims and support being withdrawn.’
The Daily Mail has approached the Home Office for further comment.
A report revealed this week how the asylum system cost taxpayers £4.9billion in 2024-25, mostly on providing migrant hotels and other accommodation.
But even this figure excluded major sums, such as legal aid for asylum seekers’ lawyers and the costs borne by local councils when taking responsibility for supporting successful claimants – suggesting the true figure could be much higher.
In its report, the National Audit Office warned: ‘We found several examples of data that could help the Government better understand outcomes within the asylum system that were not routinely being collected, or which they could not provide.
‘For example, the Home Office did not hold complete data on the number who absconded from the asylum system.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said it showed ‘the Home Office is likely to have lost track of thousands of illegal immigrants who have claimed asylum’.
Other gaps in official figures include a lack of data on how many failed asylum seekers face deportation or other enforcement.
The Home Office was also unable to state the number of unsuccessful deportation attempts it had made, or why they failed.
The Ministry of Justice did not have data on the number of asylum seekers who bring repeated appeals or the total cases received by the Upper Immigration Tribunal, which hears appeals against failed asylum claims.
Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, called for Britain to quit the European Convention on Human Rights, adding: ‘Protecting the public must be paramount.’
The NAO compiled the report after tracking 5,000 asylum claims lodged in January 2023 through the system for 32 months.
By this September, only 452 of the total, or 9 per cent, had been deported, representing ‘just 18 per cent of all people with refused or invalid claims’, the report said.
Just under 35 per cent – 1,725 cases – had been granted asylum or another type of leave to remain in Britain.
A further 56 per cent of cases had not concluded. This included 41 per cent which were effectively in ‘limbo’, with their cases not being progressed by the Home Office.
NAO chief analyst Ruth Kelly said: ‘The Home Office doesn’t have robust data on the number of people who have absconded, so we’re not entirely sure of the circumstances of those people.
‘Some may be getting accommodation support, some may still be reporting to the Home Office.’
Those listed as absconders are likely to have slipped into the black market economy to earn money illegally. Others could have left the UK voluntarily or have died.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics last month showed a fall in net migration – the total number of migrants arriving to live long-term in the UK, minus those emigrating.
In the year to June, net migration was 204,000 – two thirds lower than a year earlier when it stood at 649,000.
The figure included a fall in long term immigration levels to 898,000 in the year – the first time it has dipped below a million since 2021, while total emigration including Britons was 693,000.
The Home Office data showed it made a record 133,500 initial decisions on asylum claims in the year to September.
Of those, 58,148 were granted refugee status or another type of leave to remain in Britain – an all-time high.
There were also more than 75,300 asylum claims rejected by the Home Office in the year, the largest number since 2001.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said last month: ‘Net migration is at its lowest level in half a decade and has fallen by more than two-thirds under this government.
‘But we are going further because the pace and scale of migration has placed immense pressure on local communities.
‘Last week, I announced reforms to our migration system to ensure that those who come here must contribute and put in more than they take out.’
Read more
- Why has Labour’s promise to end taxpayer-funded asylum hotels been shattered, with an alarming 29% surge in numbers?
- What are the jaw-dropping figures behind the sky-high costs for asylum hotels, and how are the Home Office planning to manage this?
- What staggering number of crimes have been committed by asylum seekers housed in British hotels?
- Could asylum costs ballooning to a staggering £15.3 billion be the catalyst for a major overhaul of Britain’s migrant hotel scheme?
- Why has the UK’s £5.7 million daily bill for asylum seeker hotels sparked urgent reforms, aiming to save taxpayers billions?
