Asylum seekers are using taxpayer handouts to fund their gambling habits.
Pre-paid cards given out to pay for basics including food and clothing are being used in gambling venues such as bookmakers, amusement arcades and even casinos, Home Office data shows.
In the last year, up to 6,537 asylum seekers have used the government-issued cards at least once for gambling.
The shock figures were released under freedom of information laws to the PoliticsHome website.
Last night they triggered calls for an immediate clampdown to prevent the abuse of taxpayers’ money by asylum seekers, including many who entered the country illegally.
The Home Office last night launched an inquiry into the scandal.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The Home Office have begun an investigation into the use of Aspen cards.
‘The Home Office has a legal obligation to support asylum seekers, including any dependants, who would otherwise be destitute.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp described the ‘shocking’ figures as ‘an insult to taxpayers’.
Migrants get onboard an inflatable dinghy boat to cross the English Channel, in Gravelines
So-called Aspen cards are issued to asylum seekers while they wait to have their claims dealt with – a process that can take months, or even years
In the last year, up to 6,537 asylum seekers have used the government-issued cards at least once for gambling, in betting shops and even casinos
Protesters outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault for trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl
‘These people have illegally entered this country without needing to – France is safe and no one needs to flee from there,’ he said. ‘The British taxpayer has put them up in hotels and now they slap us in the face by using the money they are given to fund gambling. These illegal immigrants clearly don’t need the money they are given if they are squandering it at casinos and arcades.
‘Labour has lost control of our borders with record numbers for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel this year. The number in asylum hotels has gone up since the election and now we learn of this insult to British taxpayers.
‘Everyone illegally crossing the Channel should be immediately removed to their country of origin or a safe third country in order to deter these crossings.’
So-called Aspen cards are issued to asylum seekers while they wait to have their claims dealt with – a process that can take months, or even years. Those in self-catered accommodation receive £49.18 on the card each week to pay for ‘clothes and footwear, non-prescription medicines, travel, food, non-alcoholic drinks, toiletries, laundry, toilet paper and communications’.
The cards are currently issued to around 80,000 individuals who are waiting for a decision on whether they have a valid claim to stay in the UK. Many are living in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense.
The Home Office is able to track where the cards are used but does not block payments for particular types of transaction. The figures reveal that significant numbers of asylum seekers are now using the cards to gamble.
The Home Office figures break down how many asylum seekers attempted to use their cards in gambling venues each week. They do not record how many times each individual attempted to use their card in that week.
They show that an average of 125 asylum seekers a week used their cards with ‘gambling-related merchants’.
Protestors outside the Britannia International Hotel, where asylum seekers are currently being housed
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp described the ‘shocking’ figures as ‘an insult to taxpayers’
Dozens used the cards every week, with 177 using them to gamble in Christmas week when many venues are closed. The figures peaked at 227 in one week at the end of November last year.
The Aspen cards use a chip and pin system so cannot be used for contactless payments or online.
A Home Office source insisted it was ‘not possible’ to use the cards to directly place a bet. However, the data is understood to include withdrawals made from cash machines inside venues such as amusement arcades and casinos – where gambling is the sole focus.
Paul Bristow, Tory mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, suggested gambling by asylum seekers at the taxpayers’ expense may even be fuelling the growth of the industry.
He told PoliticsHome: ‘Peterborough has seen a huge increase in the number of gambling establishments and gaming centres, and a huge increase in men who’ve arrived on small boats.
‘It’s not unusual to see the very same men in some of the establishments on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. There’s something going on here. Questions need to be asked. It would be absolutely wrong if they were using money given to them by British taxpayers to waste on gambling.’
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: ‘This revelation, coupled with migrants working illegally, shows that the Home Office is incapable of policing the illegal migrant population. This is a slap in the face to hardworking British taxpayers who are struggling to make ends meet.’
Paul Bristow, Tory mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, suggested gambling by asylum seekers may even be fuelling the growth of the industry
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice described the scandal as a ‘slap in the face for taxpayers struggling to make ends meet’
The revelations are likely to fuel concerns about the explosion in small boat crossings under Labour. Around 20,000 people crossed the Channel illegally in the first half of this year – a rise of 50 per cent on the previous year.
Public anger is already mounting over the policy of accommodating tens of thousands of asylum seekers in hotels across the country, with angry protests erupting in recent days in Epping, in Essex, Diss in Norfolk and Canary Wharf, in London.
The Aspen cards were introduced to provide basic subsistence for asylum seekers who are not legally allowed to work or claim benefits in most cases.
But ministers are increasingly concerned at evidence of illegal working by asylum seekers, which may allow some to treat their taxpayer-funded handouts as pin money. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a clampdown on illegal working this week following a string of reports about asylum seekers earning money in the gig economy with delivery firms such as Deliveroo and Just Eat. In some cases, delivery bikes bearing the firms’ logos have been seen parked outside asylum hotels.
Firms will be issued with data on the locations of asylum hotels and ordered to stop using workers who appear to have been operating from there. But experts question whether this will work.
Emma Brooksbank, immigration partner at law firm Freeths, said the plan was likely to prove ineffective. ‘It will not be difficult for illegal workers to bypass this restriction and avoid detection. Companies like these gig economy operators are largely unregulated, and as such the usual right to work penalties of £60,000 per illegal worker do not apply. They have no real incentive to clean up their act.’
