Asylum seekers will be banned from taking taxis for medical appointments

The government has announced that asylum seekers will be barred from using taxis for medical appointments beginning in February. It comes after a BBC probe discovered that some people had travelled long distances by taxis or minicabs, with one asylum seeker saying they went on a 250-mile cab ride to a GP, costing the Home Office £600. In reaction, the government launched an urgent inquiry into taxi use and cost to relocate asylum seekers from hotels to appointments in September. Now that the government has reported spending an average of around £15. The annual traffic for asylum seekers hits 8 million people per year.

Fourfound asylum seekers were given a bus ticket for one return trip per week earlier this year. Taxis were used for other essential travel, such as doctor's appointments. One driver told the BBC that his company would do up to 15 drop-offs daily from a hotel in south east London to a doctors surgery just two miles away. These journeys alone will cost the Home Office £1,000 a day, he said. Another taxi driver, Steve, claimed that taxi companies would deliberately raise the mileage on trips by sending drivers to another faraway town to do short trips. On Saturday, he told BBC Radio 4's Today show that he was sent from Gatwick Airport to Reading on a single occasion, costing more than £100 to bring an asylum seeker from their hotel to a dentist appointment, which was 1. 5 miles away. Steve said he was sent from Gatwick to Southampton more than once while driving an average of 275 miles per day, half of which was without a passenger in his car. Some journeys were clearly wasted, according to him.

I'd be sitting here and [would be told] 'Oh look, [the asylum seekers] don't want to go, [they don' t want] and they basically refused to move.

It's just logistically wrong, and I believe it was left open to abuse,

he said. However, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that this was going to change.

I am banning the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital admissions,she said, only in the most unusual situations.I'll continue to root out garbage as we close every single asylum hotel.

The government had inherited expensive Conservative employees,

she said. Ministers prefer asylum seekers to use alternatives such as public transportation rather than taxis. Some people with physical impairments, persistent illnesses, and pregnancy-related problems will be given exceptions. Under the new legislation, these will have to be signed off by the Home Office.

There are other situations in which taxis can be used, such as moving between accommodation, but ministers are considering the wider use of taxis for asylum seekers and want to reiterate the argument that taxis are only used in exceptional circumstances with support evidence. By the next election, ministers have agreed not to restrict the use of asylum hotels. They want to increase the use of alternative accommodation, such as large military bases, in order to increase their use of alternate accommodation. However, figures from earlier this week revealed that 36,273 people were still staying in asylum facilities in the United Kingdom, an increase from June. The rising cost of running asylum facilities has also been chastised, and the salaries have risen dramatically since the contracts were signed. In a BBC interview earlier this year, Mahmood said she would investigate all options when she was asked if the government was going to use break clauses in contracts with providers. However, doing so would require the establishment of alternative accommodation, which would require further investigation.

The government has made significant reforms to reform the asylum system, with refugee status becoming temporary and the removal of guaranteed housing assistance for asylum seekers. Since being elected, the government has earned £74 million, but the chair of the home affairs select committee said that this was just the start.