Revealed: Government Ripped off by Hotels Housing Asylum Seekers

It has been revealed that the private companies running migrant hotels for the government are making levels of profit that Lib Dem MP Paul Kohler has called ‘obscene’. Companies like Clearsprings Ready Homes, who house asylum seekers for the government, have seen the overall expected costs of their services more than triple since the contract was signed: from £4.5bn to £15bn.

But while Clearsprings makes nearly £187m in profit, serious questions have arisen over the quality of the service they are charging this much for. The migrants housed in these hotels have described the conditions they are expected to live in, with reports of toilet roll, menstrual-hygiene products, and even food being rationed. One mother says that she has taken to boiling eggs in a kettle, because it is the only way she can get protein for her eight-year-old daughter. There are even reports of residents being served uncooked chicken and still-frozen food, as Clearsprings allegedly leaves them to deal with filthy mattresses and toilets that don’t work. There are reports of the asylum seekers being given just one toilet roll for four people per week, and only seven pads per period.

The government is paying this much out of the public purse, and what benefit is anybody getting from it, if the profits are being hoarded by the private companies who refuse even to provide a satisfactory service?