How are we paying to house asylum seekers

[Asylumhotels]

I saw on the news that the UK is spending several million pounds every day to house asylum seekers in hotels. How are we affording this? Surely we can't carry this on, are there any alternatives?

Sorry if this is incorrect, I only know what I've seen on the news so any further info is welcome

I’m saying that in my experience, the people who are most triggered by AS are the ones who think they’re losing out because of what other people are getting. If you’re satisfied and happy with your life, there’s no need to demonise others.

The tax comment was to try and show you just how pathetic it is for people to say ‘my taxes shouldn’t pay for this’. How much do you really think goes to AS out of your personal tax purse? Like a pound? A fiver?

I don’t know what hibi means but I live in London. There’s tons of AS shelters, half way houses and the rest near me. So my M&S pants are not nearly as twisted as your Poundland ones over this issue.

@BotterMon here’s the guidance, enjoy 😁
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1119545/Assessing_age.pdf#page12

@woodhill and @AdamBible if
you’d seen Syria before the wars, people had a good standard of living, lovely houses, lots of people in professional jobs etc, but during the war whole areas were bombed and destroyed. So I guess it depends if you’re talking about the before or after. Afghanistan over the last few years has had quite destitute living conditions with high poverty and often no electricity and shortages of food.

Also @AdamBible if people don’t have the money (or have already lost it it to traffickers) they risk being forced into working in slavery conditions or being imprisoned for ransom on the journey to Europe. It’s not as simple as everyone being independently wealthy enough, although of course some people are. Relevant link:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/refugee-crisis-migrants-libya-europe-eu-italy-abuse-torture-slavery-forced-labour-iom-report-msf-rape-a7366361.html?amp

For the most part, many people aren’t paying. Those of us who are net contributors are paying a minuscule amount towards them via tax, which is how it should be. The people really paying the cost are all the low income, mainly working age private renters that are seeing any possibility of affordable social housing disappear over the horizon. The people already in the deprived, under funded council areas that are generally used as dumping grounds for asylum seekers and their understandably expensive needs.
Should we be spending a tiny % of taxation on them? Yes, of course. Should we be telling those that generally absorb the real cost to suck it up, no.

The people already in the deprived, under funded council areas that are generally used as dumping grounds for asylum seekers and their understandably expensive needs.

Yep, the absolute stupidest, most divisive plan the government could have made was to house asylum seekers en masse in already deprived areas that struggle for social housing, school places, healthcare, etc. So of course that’s exactly what they did. And now they’ve built up such a huge backlog that wherever they house people, if they house them in large groups it risks being unsustainable. It’s beyond frustrating.

Interesting especially the non-reliance on scientific processes as not always correct and the Merton method.

@BewareTheLibrarians exactly. And then we tell any of those people raising valid concerns they are being racist/ selfish/ heartless etc. Which results in either resentment, or in many cases turning them to the far right because nobody else is listening.
It isn’t very generous or understanding for me to sacrifice resources I don’t need for asylum seekers. Unfortunately too many other people in similar privileged positions are all too keen to decide what other deprived people should sacrifice for them, and berate them when they naturally object.

I do agree with you on the whole @TrainspottingWelsh but we might differ a bit on people turning to the far right. Logically I can see how a group offering easy answers and easy solutions (“send the all back” = not our problem anymore) is tempting but a lot of people seem to fall for far right rhetoric without ever double checking or thinking about a thing. They see on fb that asylum seekers get £200 a week and immediately believe it rather than googling the government guidelines. They believe asylum seekers are “all economic migrants” without checking if that’s true or not.

I know people are desperate and stressed and overstretched but demonising another group without the facts isn’t the answer. It is absolutely human nature though, so I do understand your point.

I agree it isn’t the answer @BewareTheLibrarians, and I’d like to think if I was in that position I’d resent the system, not the asylum seekers. But in reality for many in that situation any discussion of the unfairness is dismissed as racism, and human nature being what it is, if the only place that will listen is the far right we are pushing people towards it.
And the sad reality is that there are many working poor that are using food banks just to exist, so even the reality of £8 a week disposable income after essential overheads isn’t always going to be perceived as hardship.

Logically I can see how a group offering easy answers and easy solutions (“send the all back”

Ironically this is also true of the other end of the spectrum where the easy rebuthal is 'racism, we have enough land to build on brown sites, supply and demand is not an issue with ever growing rent prices for the young'

It's just as easy to fall into the 'far left' trap that it is only a a 'far right' narrative issue.

Even the most famed left leaning grown ups of europe are now starting to question immigration, it will be a few years before it seeps down to mn to be acceptable to question the grey area of the conversation, but most of europe has realised it isn't the the ;far right; who are only seeking simplistic easy answers

@TrainspottingWelsh Understandable, and I don’t think anyone who’s struggling has the capacity (or should have to have the capacity) to have empathy for this too. But the far right’s narrative is built completely on lies, they’re targeting vulnerable people and it’s not ok for that to go unchallenged. I always try to provide information and links rather than shout someone down as racist (although the one person I have got tetchy with on this thread was deleted and banned by MNHQ as a “racist troll” so make of that what you will!)

@Justanotherlurker People on the left/perceived left have been questioning immigration for as long as people on the right, albeit in different ways! It’s a lazy trope often propagated on these threads that “the left” (especially those of us correcting misconceptions about the asylum system) want open borders, houses built on every inch of land, unlimited numbers but that’s not what people are arguing for, nor is it a popular view, even on the “left”. As ever, the solution is likely somewhere in the middle, with hopefully the more bonkers and dangerous views of the far left and far right ignored.

@BewareTheLibrarians agreed. Unfortunately policy, society and the general media doesn’t take the wider view.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen if you really think sending people back to face unknown horrors is the “solution” I’m not sure what to say to you. What a revolting attitude to have.