Thank you for subscribing!

Hotels are closing but migrants are simply being rehoused in communities like Piddington while removals grind to a halt, writes the Research Director for the Centre for Migration Control

Figures released yesterday show that the asylum system cost the British taxpayer £4.3billion in 2025/26 — that is an eightfold increase on what it cost us just a decade ago.

The system is in a state of perma-chaos, and there are increasing signs that the Labour-run Home Office is only compounding the problem.

Just look at the centrepiece of Labour's asylum policy: to end the use of hotels.

This has simply meant that asylum seekers and illegal migrants are being placed in HMOs and other unsuitable sites at an ever-growing rate. Some 73,000 people are now in non-hotel accommodation, an increase of seven per cent since the general election.

They are not going into immigration detention facilities — there are fewer than 2,500 beds in the estate. No, they are going to be placed in the heart of communities. Asylum applications are still running at historically unprecedented levels and this will mean going forward that villages such as Piddington — with a population of just 350 — will be told by ministers that they are going to have to play host to hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal migrants.

Because let's be perfectly clear. Almost all those claiming asylum are illegal migrants.

Over half entered the country illegally, and many others took advantage of our liberal work and student visa systems to get a foothold in Britain with every intent of making a cynical asylum claim once here.

The other statistic that Labour-supporting journalists are keen to highlight is the dramatic fall in the number of asylum cases waiting for an initial decision. The backlog has now fallen to 32,401 cases, the lowest since 2019.

What is not being discussed, of course, is that this has been achieved not only by waving through many applications, but also by allowing the number of court appeals to skyrocket to record highs. In March 2023, there were roughly 8,000 appeals going through the First-tier Immigration Tribunal; as of March 2026 this figure is now well over 87,000.

And when it comes to the only metric that truly matters — the removal and deportation of illegal migrants — the Labour Party is sitting idle.

Less than eight per cent of small boat migrants who have arrived under Labour have actually been removed, and this includes, of course, those who were sent to France before sneaking back into the country. Since Labour took power, the Home Office has deported more Poles than it has individuals from the top five small boat nationalities combined.

Those migrants currently in northern France will have seen yesterday's figures and feel more emboldened than ever to make it across, knowing full well that even if their asylum application is eventually rejected, the human rights framework of this country, along with the Refugee Convention, means they will never be removed.

So, yes, the system is in total and utter crisis. There is no other way to describe a system that houses unvetted young men next to schools and playgrounds, that costs every household in the country £150 a year, and that continues to act as a huge pull factor for the never-ending stream of boats.