The London Assembly has urged mayor Sadiq Khan to consider ways of helping asylum seekers with their public transport costs.
Asylum seekers, waiting to hear from the Home Office whether they will be granted refugee status or be sent back to the country they came from, live on as little as £8.86 per week. They are usually unable to work and are not allowed to claim benefits either.
Labour assembly member Elly Baker said on Thursday that this made it “incredibly challenging” for asylum seekers to travel to English language classes, health appointments, or to access legal advice.
In a formal motion debated by the Assembly, she called on the mayor to “work with a range of partners, including London boroughs, voluntary sector organisations working directly with asylum seekers, and the NHS, on ways to support public transport access for asylum seekers, such as with travel vouchers, to enable access to necessary journeys”.
She added that it was “important that asylum seekers have opportunities to integrate into wider society, especially given the majority of asylum claims are granted” and that “the cost of public transport acts as a barrier to this process”.
In the UK, asylum seekers are given accommodation and £49.18 per week to pay for their food, toiletries, clothing and any other costs.
If their accommodation provides free meals however, they are only given £8.86 per week to cover all of their non-food costs.
Ms Baker’s motion received majority support from the Assembly, as it was backed by the Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat groups.
But City Hall Conservatives abstained on the motion without commenting on it, and Reform UK member Alex Wilson was the sole person to vote against it, saying it was “important to recognise we have an illegal immigration emergency”.
Under Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, asylum seekers have the right not to be penalised for being in or entering a country without permission, where this is necessary for them to seek asylum.
The last Conservative Government argued that asylum seekers crossing the Channel were not eligible for protection under that right, as they were coming via France, and therefore not “directly” from a country in which they faced persecution.
But the UN Refugee Agency - the UNHCR - said this was a “misconstruction” of Article 31, as it would otherwise require asylum seekers to settle in the first safe country they reach and “would impose an arbitrary and disproportionate burden on countries in the immediate region(s) of flight”.
Mr Wilson continued: “Even the Prime Minister now recognises people smuggling as a national security threat. For all the talk of ‘smashing the gangs’, we’re not going to get a grip on this issue until the pull factors are addressed.
“It was already out of control under the last Government, and it’s getting even worse now. More than 31,000 crossed the Channel by November 2 [since the start of 2024] - more than the whole of last year, and there are still two months to go.
“We are, and always have been, a welcoming country to those in genuine need, but the vast majority of those crossing are not women and children fleeing war and persecution; three quarters are males of fighting age.”
According to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, “one reason for the higher share of men among asylum seekers, in general, is the danger associated with irregular migration journeys”, and “in many cases, female and minor family members join later through family reunification routes”.
Mr Wilson concluded: “British taxpayers will reach a limit when they feel they are being taken advantage of. We saw on Tuesday, in America, what happens when a people have had enough of their generosity being taken for granted.
“I know I'm alone at present in this chamber, but I'm sure if we carry on like this, in four years’ time [after the next Assembly election], I won't be.”
Ms Baker retorted that when people imply that asylum seekers will “get into dinghies and cross the Channel, risking their own lives… just so they can get free travel on a bus, to go to the hospital, or an ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] class, we have lost our grip on reality”.
Approached for comment on the motion, a spokeswoman for Mr Khan said: “The mayor is always keen to explore what can be done to help vulnerable people in London, including those seeking asylum.
“Currently, people seeking asylum can apply, where eligible, for existing Transport for London (TfL) concessions, and those who need help completing their online applications can also contact TfL’s customer services to get further assistance.
“We will continue our work to ensure we remove any barriers that prevent people seeking asylum accessing any concessions they are entitled to.”
