Asylum seekers banned from taking taxis for medical trips

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a ban on asylum seekers using taxis for most medical journeys.

Under the new rules, taxi use for medical travel will be restricted to exceptional, evidence-based cases, including physical disability, pregnancy, or serious illness.

Such journeys will now require direct Home Office approval.

This policy change follows a recent BBC investigation that revealed "widespread" taxi use by asylum seekers, prompting a Home Office review of transport arrangements.

All service providers are required to stop using taxis for these medical journeys from February.

Ms Mahmood said the Government is working with providers to introduce alternatives — such as public transport — in a bid to save taxpayer money.

“This Government inherited Conservative contracts that are wasting billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash,” she said.

“I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, authorising them only in the most exceptional circumstances.

“I will continue to root out waste as we close every single asylum hotel.”

Earlier this month, Ms Mahmood set out a raft of measures to overhaul the asylum system, aimed at deterring illegal migration to the UK and making it easier to deport people.

The proposed changes include making refugee status temporary, subject to reviews every 30 months, and sending refugees home if their country is deemed safe.

The wide-ranging reforms drew criticism from Labour backbenchers.

Ms Mahmood told MPs it was the “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s generous asylum offer, compared with other European countries, is drawing people to UK shores, and for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.

The Home Secretary told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast that she had already directed officials to “pilot a small programme” of increased payments “just to see how it changes behaviour”.

The UK currently offers payments of up to £3,000 for some people with no right to remain in the country who agree to return home.

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