Overseas aid which has been diverted for refugees in the UK has now reached an eye watering £4.3 billion over the last year.
On Wednesday provisional figures shows that spending on “in-donor refugee costs” has increased by £600 million last year and the overall amount has risen by £2.6 billion.
The increase in spending is due “to the Home Office” spending, which is up by £559 million in 2023, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
International Development Committee chair Sarah Champion said the cost on supporting refugees in Britain is “deeply worrying.”
Speaking to PA news agency she said, “We have expressed our concerns on a number of occasions and ministers are still not listening.
“Almost 30% of our aid is being spent on refugee costs – nearly five times our bilateral spend on emergency international humanitarian aid.
“We do not believe that UK ODA is being spent in the spirit of the OECD rules.”
Shadow international development minister Lisa Nandy blasted the government and said they are using the Overseas Development Aid (ODA) to “bail out their failing asylum system with a blank cheque.”
Nandy said, “This is sticking plaster politics at its worst, terrible value for money for British taxpayers and is no way to run the development budget or the Home Office.”
Tamsyn Barton, chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), hosting asylum seekers by spending an “unlimited amount” at the expense of the Foreign Office is giving “the wrong incentives.”
She added, “What’s more, using so much of the aid budget on UK asylum hotels, rather than on supporting people nearer home, is inequitable and inefficient.”
A UK Government spokesperson said, “The UK spent over £15 billion on development last year, including on life-saving humanitarian aid in Gaza, in Sudan following the coup, and in Turkiye and Syria after the earthquake.
“Our spend in 2023 also helped fragile states to access finance, millions of women globally to receive family planning support and is tackling the effects of climate change. We are also nearly doubling our spend in low-income countries this financial year.
“Last year’s budget was boosted by additional funding to support refugees in the UK, who have escaped oppression and conflict overseas, including from Ukraine and Afghanistan. We will continue to ensure our aid budget delivers value for money for British taxpayers.”
