Migrants on a small boat attempt to cross the English Channel. Getty Images
Migrants on a small boat attempt to cross the English Channel. Getty Images
Migrants on a small boat attempt to cross the English Channel. Getty Images
Migrants on a small boat attempt to cross the English Channel. Getty Images

UK urged to cut migrant hotel stays to free up overseas aid budget


Thomas Harding
  • English
  • Arabic

The British government has been urged by international organisations to divert its spending on asylum seekers' hotel bills to make up the shortfall in its overseas aid budget.

A record surge in migrant crossings into the UK has seen one fifth of foreign aid cash – £2.8 billion last year – used for migrant accommodation. A group of 106 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities have told Prime Minister Keir Starmer to break the costly hotel contracts and put migrants in more basic accommodation.

With Britain cutting its foreign aid budget from 0.5 per cent of national income to 0.3 per cent, in a letter to the Prime Minister the organisations said the huge costs for housing asylum seekers were damaging "efforts to create a more stable and peaceful world”.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being urged to put migrants in cheaper accommodation than hotels. AFP
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being urged to put migrants in cheaper accommodation than hotels. AFP

Rather than pay hotel costs of £145 a night per refugee, the signatories urged the government to move them into large houses, flats or bedsits to cut costs. Currently, more than 38,000 migrants are in hotels while nearly 66,000 are in other accommodation.

The NGOs and charities called on the Home Office to trigger a break clause for a 10-year contract worth £4.6 billion for migrant accommodation, an action that can be taken next January. But the Home Office, which has a legal obligation to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, has resisted the move as there remains a lack of housing space across the country.

Record crossings

That pressure is likely to grow with the unusually benign weather in the English Channel this year leading to mass crossings. So far a record 8,888 people have made the journey this year, 42 per cent higher than in mid-April 2024. Tuesday saw the highest number of arrivals on a single day this year, when 705 migrants made the approximately 40km sea journey in 12 rubber inflatable boats.

Ministers hope to stop the flow in further agreements with France, including a migrant exchange deal, but that will take time.

‘Make the world safer’

Mr Starmer has promised to stop the use of the foreign aid budget for domestic asylum costs, but this is proving difficult, although the £2.8 billion spent last year was less than the £4.3 billion in 2023. Those are still staggering amounts, argue the charities and NGOs. They say they want to “express our concerns about the continued use of UK aid to pay for supporting people seeking asylum in the UK”.

In the letter obtained, by The Times, they also highlighted the long-term benefit of using UK aid “to help make the world a safer and more secure place”. They added: “We strongly encourage efforts to support refugees in the UK, but the current system is not fit for purpose.”

The letter was backed by MP Sarah Champion, chairwoman of the International Development Select Committee. The Refugee Council, International Rescue Committee UK, Safe Passage International and WaterAid were also signatories.

In a statement to The National, the Home Office said it was already closing asylum hotels which would “drastically reduce taxpayer costs”.

“Under the previous government, the [overseas] development budget was redirected towards the asylum backlog, which is now being tackled at record pace to redirect our focus on international priorities overseas,” it stated.

It added that decisions on people’s asylum status had increased by 52 per cent in the last six months, while the department had removed 24,000 illegal immigrants since last year’s election.

Day 5, Dubai Test: At a glance

Moment of the day Given the problems Sri Lanka have had in recent times, it was apt the winning catch was taken by Dinesh Chandimal. He is one of seven different captains Sri Lanka have had in just the past two years. He leads in understated fashion, but by example. His century in the first innings of this series set the shock win in motion.

Stat of the day This was the ninth Test Pakistan have lost in their past 11 matches, a run that started when they lost the final match of their three-Test series against West Indies in Sharjah last year. They have not drawn a match in almost two years and 19 matches, since they were held by England at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi in 2015.

The verdict Mickey Arthur basically acknowledged he had erred by basing Pakistan’s gameplan around three seam bowlers and asking for pitches with plenty of grass in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Why would Pakistan want to change the method that has treated them so well on these grounds in the past 10 years? It is unlikely Misbah-ul-Haq would have made the same mistake.

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Grubtech

Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi

Launched: October 2019

Employees: 50

Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)

 

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

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Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion

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Report to local authorities

Warn others to prevent further harm

Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

The specs

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Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm

Transmission: 9-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km

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Mina Cup winners

Under 12 – Minerva Academy

Under 14 – Unam Pumas

Under 16 – Fursan Hispania

Under 18 – Madenat

The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo

Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm

Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km

Price: from Dh285,000

On sale: from January 2022 

Gully Boy

Director: Zoya Akhtar
Producer: Excel Entertainment & Tiger Baby
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi​​​​​​​
Rating: 4/5 stars

Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

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The specs
  • Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
  • Power: 640hp
  • Torque: 760nm
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

pakistan Test squad

Azhar Ali (capt), Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Abbas, Yasir Shah, Usman Shinwari

Scores:

Day 4

England 290 & 346
Sri Lanka 336 & 226-7 (target 301)

Sri Lanka require another 75 runs with three wickets remaining

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Company Profile:

Name: The Protein Bakeshop

Date of start: 2013

Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani

Based: Dubai

Size, number of employees: 12

Funding/investors:  $400,000 (2018) 

Most F1 world titles

7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)

7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)

5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)

4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)

4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

How to help

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Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
The specs

Price, base / as tested Dh1,100,000 (est)

Engine 5.2-litre V10

Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch

Power 630bhp @ 8,000rpm

Torque 600Nm @ 6,500rpm

Fuel economy, combined 15.7L / 100km (est) 

DMZ facts
  • The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
  • It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
  • The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
  • It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
  • Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
  • Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
  • Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012. 
  • Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
Brief scores:

Manchester City 3

Bernardo Silva 16', Sterling 57', Gundogan 79'

Bournemouth 1

Wilson 44'

Man of the match: Leroy Sane (Manchester City)

Updated: April 18, 2025, 11:43 AM`