By ABUL TAHER Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has blamed lawyers for the rising cost of looking after failed asylum seekers Taxpayers are paying £73million to house and feed failed asylum seekers who should have been deported - a huge leap from the £4million spent just four years ago. Ministers have admitted the increase is due to the huge backlog of failed claimants, who cannot be removed despite judges ruling they have no right to stay here. Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has now blamed lawyers for the rise, saying they were 'frustrating' the Government's efforts to deport failed asylum seekers. He said many were 'paralysing' the asylum process by arguing that their clients cannot be returned to their homelands because of conflict or because they are unwell. But the Refugee Council, which provides advice to asylum seekers, has hit back, saying the Home Office was running a system that is 'under-resourced' and plagued with 'administrative problems'. The shocking Government figures were revealed by Mr Woolas in a parliamentary answer to Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather. They show that, in the financial year 2007/08, about 9,365 failed asylum seekers received £73million in accommodation and food allowances - about £8,000 a year or £150 a week for each claimant. A spokesman for the Home Office admitted that the number of failed asylum seekers claiming assistance had more than doubled from 5,180 in 2004/05 to 10,850 by the first quarter of this year. But he insisted the rise was due to failed claimants becoming more aware they are entitled to receive benefits under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. It states that those who can prove they are destitute can claim free accommodation and £35 a week in food vouchers. Although the support is meant to be temporary, in reality most who qualify will continue to receive it as their lawyers engage in protracted legal battles against their removal. Mr Woolas said: 'A large proportion of those on Section 4 support have exhausted all rights of appeal and should return home, but their lawyers are continuing to frustrate and delay removals, playing the system and offering false hope.' However, a spokesman for the Refugee Council said: 'The Home Office asylum process is extremely under-resourced and it has real administrative problems that have caused the backlog of removals.' Damian Green, Tory immigration spokesman, said: 'It's simply not good enough for Ministers to blame lawyers for the shambles in the whole system. The Government needs very urgently to do something about the rising cost.'Cost of keeping failed asylum seekers has soared from £4m to £73m in just FOUR years, minister admits
Last updated at 11:03 PM on 20th June 2009
Sunday 21 June 2009
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