Illegal migrants who are living in asylum hotels have been caught gambling with taxpayer funded payment card and are given £9.95 a week to spend on the “Aspen” card provided by the Home Office.
The money put on these cards is supposed to be used to buy food and toiletries.
PoliticsHome uncovered from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request that thousands of asylum seekers are using the Aspen cards for gambling.
The FOI found that 6,537 asylum seekers used the cards in “gambling settings” over the past year in the UK and last November 227 attempted to use the Aspen card to gamble in one week.
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The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said, “It is shocking that over 6,000 illegal immigrants have attempted to use hard-working British taxpayers’ money to gamble.
“They have illegally entered this country without needing to – France is safe, and no one needs to flee from there.
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.
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mayor Paul Bristow 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 across the Channel 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 or in adult gaming centres.
