The home secretary has ordered an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis ferrying asylum seekers between hotels and to and from medical appointments.
Shabana Mahmood’s call follows an investigation into life inside asylum hotels, which found one migrant sent on a 250-mile journey to a GP appointment at a cost to the Home Office of £600.
In other cases, migrants are transported hundreds of miles across the country via taxi when they are moved between hotels.
But it is currently not known how much the Home Office spends each year taxiing migrants to and from appointments and between hotels.
Asked about the revelation, part of a BBC investigation into life inside the asylum hotels, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said: “The Home Office don’t have figures, I think, I don’t want to get into the specifics of that case, but it’s very, it’s very questionable why such a long distance was travelled in that instance.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary has asked the department to urgently look into the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers.”
The BBC’s investigation also found migrants cooking meals in dangerous conditions in hotel rooms, with electric hobs set up in showers and fire alarms covered up.
And it uncovered widespread illegal working, with migrants admitting to taking jobs in the dark economy for as little as £20 a day to send money home to their families and pay off people smugglers.
Anger has mounted at the government’s use of hotels to house asylum seekers, with charity the Refugee Council warning they have become “a flashpoint for community tensions and cost billions to the taxpayer”.
Critics have also warned that they leave migrants trapped in limbo, while protesters have gathered outside hotels housing asylum seekers, calling for them to be shuttered.
But, until the BBC’s investigation, little was known about the extent to which taxpayer-funded taxis were being relied upon to transport migrants around the country.
The Conservatives accused Labour of “writing a blank cheque for illegal immigration”.
Labour has promised to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, with Rachel Reeves promising the move will save £1bn per year.
But Mr Pennycook on Tuesday was unable to guarantee the target will be met, insisting only that the party is “determined” to reach it.
The former top civil servant in the Home Office has also cautioned ministers over the target, warning that “ups and downs” could throw it off course.
