British authorities are planning to introduce a new measures that will see people granted asylum in the United Kingdom to pay back around $10,000 cost of their accommodation and support to the government.
This move to be included in the upcoming Immigration and Asylum Bill will see people granted asylum pay UK government once they started working and earning.
The UK Home Office, in a post on social media on Tuesday, said, “New reforms will see asylum seekers pay towards the cost of their housing and financial support.
“Migrants who can afford to are expected to have to pay around £10,000 to be eligible for settlement.”
Asylum beneficiaries who leave the UK would also have to pay the £10,000 if they wish to return to the country.
“Asylum seekers who leave the UK will be expected to have contributed towards the cost of their previous accommodation and financial support if they attempt to return at a future date,” the Home Office said
The UK Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said asylum beneficiaries paying back cost of accommodation and support was to demonstrate that “asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility.”
“Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so,” she said.
This comes as another move by the UK government to tighten immigration laws and not bearing the financial burden of asylum seekers working and earning a living in the UK.
According to the Home Office, 24 per cent of between 16 and 64-year-olds granted asylum between 2015 and 2023 were in employment in the first year after they entered the UK.
