A ban on asylum seekers utilizing taxis for many medical journeys has been introduced by House Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Underneath the brand new guidelines, taxi use for medical journey might be restricted to “exceptional” circumstances reminiscent of bodily incapacity, being pregnant or severe sickness – and these would require authorities approval.
Ms Mahmood made the announcement after a BBC investigation discovered “widespread” use of taxis by asylum seekers, together with for lengthy journeys – with one case involving a 250-mile journey to see a GP.
Transport for asylum seekers has price the federal government a mean of just about £16m a yr, in response to stories.
Picture:
House Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Pic: PA
All service suppliers might be required to cease utilizing taxis for medical journeys from February subsequent yr and the federal government is now working to assist introduce options reminiscent of public transport.
“This government inherited Conservative contracts that are wasting billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash,” the house secretary stated.
“I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, authorising them only in the most exceptional circumstances.
“I’ll proceed to root out waste as we shut each single asylum resort.”
Taxi drivers said the system was open to “abuse”, accusing sub-contractors of inflating mileage, for example by dispatching drivers over lengthy distances to carry out a lot shorter journeys.
One informed BBC Radio 4’s Right this moment programme he had been dispatched from Gatwick to take an asylum seeker greater than 50 miles away in Studying to an appointment just one.5 miles from his resort. A second driver was reportedly despatched from Heathrow, about 30 miles away, to carry the identical man again from the appointment.
The coverage change comes after a House Workplace evaluate of transport preparations for asylum seekers, it’s understood.
Asylum system overhaul
It comes after a raft of measures to overtake the asylum system was set out by Ms Mahmood earlier in November.
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House secretary units out migration guidelines
The “restoring order and control” plan contains:
• The removing of extra households with youngsters – both voluntarily by means of money incentives as much as £3,000, or by power;• Quadrupling the time profitable asylum seekers should wait to assert everlasting residency, from 5 to twenty years;• Eradicating the authorized obligation to supply monetary help for many who have the fitting to work however select to not;• Establishing a brand new appeals physique to considerably velocity up the time it takes to determine whether or not to refuse an utility;• Reforming how the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration circumstances;• Banning visas for international locations refusing to just accept deportees;• The institution of recent secure and authorized refugee routes.
The house secretary informed MPs it’s an “uncomfortable truth” that Britain’s beneficiant asylum supply, in contrast with different European international locations, is attracting individuals to the UK – and for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.
Nonetheless, the wide-ranging reforms have drawn criticism from Labour backbenchers.
Nadia Whittome MP referred to as Ms Mahmood’s plans “dystopian” and “shameful”, whereas Richard Burgon MP stated she ought to change course fairly than be pressured right into a U-turn later.
To date this yr, some 39,292 individuals have made the journey throughout the Channel, already greater than final yr’s numbers, however nonetheless beneath the full for the file yr of 2022.
