The UK should house illegal immigrants in “simple, functional” spaces as opposed to luxury hotels in a bid to disincentivise “asylum shopping,” Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has said.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Jenrick said the UK “has an obligation to provide sanctuary to some of the many who flee war and persecution,” but the country’s generosity is being “abused” by illegal immigrants “skipping the queue in small boat crossings.”
More than 40,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the English Channel to reach the UK this year.
‘Pull Factor’
Jenrick said a “chronic shortage of acceptable accommodation” for record numbers of illegal immigrants has forced the government to procure expensive and often unsuitable hotels, burdening the taxpayer with an “unacceptable” cost….