Nottinghamshire MP Robert Jenrick has claimed the UK’s asylum system is “riddled with abuse” and revealed migrants will be asked to share hotel rooms as the Government comes under pressure to reduce net migrations.
The Immigration Minister, who is the Conservative MP for Newark, said a lot of progress has been made on illegal migration in a short period of time, with “really unique landmark deals” with France seeing a “big increase” in the number of interceptions on the beaches.
But he said the asylum system – which according to him has a backlog of more than 150,000 cases – must be changed “fundamentally”.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “The asylum system is riddled with abuse, we have to be honest with ourselves. The way to tackle that is by changing fundamentally the way we handle asylum.”
Mr Jenrick said the Illegal Migration Bill to detain migrants who arrive through unauthorised means before returning them home or to a third country, such as Rwanda, will alleviate the pressure.
“That will create the deterrent we desperately need, it will break the business model of the people smuggle gangs and it will stop the system from coming under intolerable pressure like it is today,” he said.
Mr Jenrick said he did not think it was unreasonable to ask asylum seekers to share rooms after a group this week apparently refused to enter a Pimlico hotel where the Home Office had asked them to sleep “four people per room”.
In a letter to the Home Secretary, the leader of Westminster City Council expressed his “deep concern” that around 40 refugees were placed in the borough on Wednesday night “without appropriate accommodation or support available” and no prior communication with the local authority.
Speaking about the incident, Mr Jenrick told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “As I understand what happened here was that these migrants, who had themselves said that they were destitute, they had nowhere to stay, we had offered them a safe bed with board and lodgings in a good-quality hotel in central London.
“Yes, some of them had to share with other people. These are single adult males: I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
“We want to reduce the cost to the taxpayer. Some people said that wasn’t good enough and they wanted their own ensuite bedrooms, and the Home Office took the perfectly reasonable view that we’ve got to look after the taxpayer here.
“And if you’re genuinely destitute, of course you’d accept that, and common sense prevailed and, I think, almost all of the migrants in question accepted the accommodation.”
He denied it was Government policy to tell asylum seekers they have to share four to a room in hotels, but said it was “completely fair and reasonable” to ask single adult males to share a room.
“We don’t want to be using hotels at all. These are taking away valuable assets for the local business community, for society, you know, people’s weddings and personal events have had to be cancelled because of that.
“But where we are using them, it’s right that we get good value for money for the taxpayer.
“And so if single adult males can share a room, and it’s legal to do so, which will obviously depend on the size of the accommodation, then we’ll ask people to do that.
“I think that’s a completely fair and reasonable approach,” he told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
Mr Jenrick said people arriving in small boats “risk cannibalising the compassion” of the UK public.
He also told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News that young men putting “overwhelming pressure” on the asylum system are making it harder for the country to support people who “genuinely need our help”.
