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government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appointment
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Author:  edders23 [ Sat Nov 29, 2025 8:28 am ]
Post subject:  government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appointment
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjn2y4eed5o

Asylum seekers will be banned from using taxis for medical appointments from February, the government has announced.

It comes after a BBC investigation found some people had travelled long distances by taxi, with one asylum seeker saying they went on a 250-mile journey to a GP, costing the Home Office £600.

In response the government launched an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis to transfer asylum seekers from their hotels to appointments in September.

Now, the government has confirmed it has spent an average of around £15.8 million per year on transport for asylum seekers.

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4's File on Four found asylum seekers were being issued with a bus pass for one return journey per week. For other necessary travel, like doctor's appointments, taxis were used, including the case of a 250-mile journey to a GP.

And on Friday, one subcontractor told the BBC his firm would do up to 15 drop-offs daily from a hotel in south east London to a doctors surgery around two miles away. These journeys alone would cost the Home Office £1,000 a day, he said.


so assuming these are return journeys that's £15 a mile approximately :shock: :shock: :shock:

But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this was now going to change.

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."

She said the government had inherited expensive Conservative contracts.

Instead of taxis, ministers want asylum seekers to use alternatives like public transport.

There will be some exemptions for people with physical disabilities, chronic illnesses and pregnancy related needs. These will have to be signed off by the Home Office under the new rules.
Author:  grandad [ Sat Nov 29, 2025 11:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appoint
edders23 wrote:

Instead of taxis, ministers want asylum seekers to use alternatives like public transport.


It might work in some big cities and towns but most places have very poor public transport.
Author:  heathcote [ Sat Nov 29, 2025 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appoint
Taxis were probabily not used to ferry these people around but most likely private hire were resulting in the rip off prices.
Author:  Sussex [ Sat Nov 29, 2025 9:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appoint
This is just the tip of a very big taxi iceberg.

There are 100s of taxi/PHVs moving these people around the country all the time, costing millions and millions.
Author:  Sussex [ Mon Dec 01, 2025 8:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appoint
Exposed: the Dubai-based fat cats making millions from asylum-seekers' taxis

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... taxis.html

A tycoon couple based in Dubai have made millions of pounds from the British taxpayer ferrying asylum seekers around the country in taxis.

Ashok Puri and his wife Manju run a number of companies in the UK, which include at least three that have had contracts to transport hotel migrants to see doctors and dentists and even to take them to airports.

The couple, who are believed to live in a luxury Dubai enclave dubbed the ‘Beverly Hills of the Middle East’, have one deal with a Home Office hotel contractor worth £4 million.

Five years ago, The Mail on Sunday revealed how another company the couple owned was paid £2 million by the same Home Office contractor to shuttle Channel migrants around the country.

The revelation comes as the Home Office on Saturday banned asylum seekers from using taxis, except in the most exceptional circumstances. The announcement was made as shock new figures revealed that taxpayers are paying nearly £16 million a year on taxi rides for migrants.

Some journeys have needlessly racked up hundreds of pounds, including a 250-mile round trip to see a GP that cost £600. Thousands of shorter journeys are being taken by migrants to doctors and dentists even though they could have caught buses or even walked.

One taxi firm revealed last week that £1,000 per day was being spent ferrying illegal migrants from a south-east London hotel to a GP’s surgery a few miles away.

Radio 4’s Today programme said on Saturday that the Home Office had told the BBC that the cost of all asylum transport amounts to an average of £15.8 million a year, but refused to reveal a specific figure for this year.

On Saturday the Home Office banned asylum seekers from using taxis, except in the most exceptional circumstances.
It is feared the annual figure is now much higher as the numbers of illegal migrants in hotels rose from 32,000 in June to more than 36,000 in September.

One of the biggest contracts known is between a company called PTS-247 and the Home Office contractor Clearsprings, which is worth £4 million per year.

PTS-247, based in Crawley, West Sussex, has had a contract to transport asylum seekers for Clearsprings in the South-East and Wales for the past three years. Clearsprings, which has a ten-year contract with the Home Office projected to be worth £7 billion, provides around 30,000 asylum seekers accommodation.

It has been reported that PTS-247 has seen its profits soar in the three years since its contract with Clearsprings began, from £52,153 in the 2022/23 financial year to £586,762 in 2023/2024.

PTS-247 belongs to a parent company called Meco Maitha, which has also reported a pre-tax profit of £3.5 million in the latest financial year, according to Companies House records.

PTS-247 and Meco Maitha are owned by Ashok Puri, 70, and his wife Manju, 66, who are Kenyans of Indian origin. They have been living in Dubai since the 1980s.

Neither Clearsprings nor PTS-247 responded to this newspaper for comment on Saturday night.

In 2020, we reported how another cab firm called Evo Taxis was paid almost £2 million in two years to transport migrants in taxis. Companies House records show Evo Taxis was also owned by the Puris.
Author:  edders23 [ Thu Feb 05, 2026 7:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: government to ban asylum seekers using taxis for appoint
and in it has come according to BBC seems to be a mixture of rehash from earlier articles with a few new paragraphs

only added just for the record :wink:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2peyj1vdgo

A ban on asylum seekers using taxis to attend medical appointments has come into force.

The government changed the policy after a BBC investigation which showed people travelling long distances at high cost.

In one case, an asylum seeker said he went on a 250-mile cab journey to a GP, costing the Home Office £600.

The ban will not stop the use of taxis completely and there will be some exemptions for people with physical disabilities, chronic illnesses and pregnancy-related needs.

These cases will have to be signed off by the Home Office under the new rules.

Taxis can also still be used for other reasons - such as travelling between accommodation. The Home Office is continuing to review that situation.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "I have ended the wasteful use of taxis for medical appointments to protect the taxpayer's purse.

"I will stop at nothing to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britian to restore order and control to our borders."

It was revealed in November that an average of £15.8m had been spent a year on taxis for asylum seekers.

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4's File on Four found asylum seekers were being issued with a bus pass for one return journey per week. For other necessary travel, like doctor's appointments, taxis were used.

One driver told the BBC his firm would do up to 15 drop-offs daily from a hotel in south-east London to a doctors surgery around two miles away. These journeys alone would cost the Home Office £1,000 a day, he said.

Another taxi driver, who gave the name Steve, claimed firms would purposely increase the mileage on trips by dispatching drivers to another distant town to carry out short journeys.

He said that on one occasion he was sent from Gatwick Airport to Reading - a round trip of about 110 miles (175km) and costing more than £100 - to take an asylum seeker from their hotel to a dentist appointment which was 1.5 miles away.

Steve said that while working for a subcontractor he was sent from Gatwick to Southampton "more than once", and that he drove an average of 275 miles a day - half of which was without a passenger in his car.

He claimed that some journeys were completely wasted.

"I'd be sitting there and [would be told] 'oh look don't worry, [the asylum seekers] don't wanna go' and they basically refused to move. It just logistically wasn't thought out very well and I think it was left open to abuse," he said.
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