Asylum seekers to be banned from using taxis for medical appointments
News / Sun 30th Nov 2025 at 08:03am
ASYLUM seekers will be banned from using taxis for medical appointments from February, the government has announced reports the BBC.
It comes after a BBC investigation found some people had travelled long distances by taxis or minicabs, with one asylum seeker saying they went on a 250-mile cab 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.
Click below for more details.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjn2y4eed5o
David Forman
2025-11-30 11:48:08
Perhaps, if the government had used local councils instead of privatisation, these ludicrous taxi costs could have been avoided. The Home Office could also have saved by not paying the profits of Clearsprings, Serco and Mears. It could have avoided Medicine San Frontieres between March and December 2024 making 226 safeguarding referrals for 187 individuals in Wethersfield barracks to the Home Office, in some cases multiple times. It could have saved Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman being found guilty in March this year of illegally detaining three asylum seekers at Wethersfield and turning upside down the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) Interestingly, PSED is a right we all rely on to protect us from government and local authority maladministration. See MSF report at https://www.msf.org/uk-government-must-immediately-close-wethersfield-mass-containment-site-asylum-seekers
David Forman
2025-11-30 11:52:10
For completeness, here is the link to Justice Mould's judgement that Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman is a lawbreaker, failing to uphold her Public Sector Equality Duty: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/tg-and-others-v-secretary-of-state-for-the-home-department/
David Forman
2025-11-30 12:05:29
For more on profits and lack of value for money, parliament's Home Affairs select committee reported this October 27: "There was extremely limited competition for the asylum accommodation contracts when they were tendered in 2018—in three of the seven contract regions, only one provider bid to deliver the service, and so were appointed without competition. Reliance on a small number of large scale suppliers, where there are limited alternative providers, no doubt weakened the Home Office’s negotiating position and ability to insist on value for money... "While we recognise the challenging circumstances in which the Home Office was operating, demand within the asylum system is unpredictable by its nature, and it is disappointing that greater consideration was not given to contingency planning (use of hotels) in the initial design of the contracts." See Home Affairs report at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmhaff/580/report.html#heading-2
Fed up pensioner mark 2
2025-11-30 13:13:10
About time to why not back date it to when these people came in illegally and get them to pay the taxi bills,why does the tax payer foot the bill..this is legalised theft.I don't get a free lift to see a doctor if I can even get an appointment.
Brian
2025-11-30 13:16:57
David foreman the people using taxis are law breakers let alone braverman and and the rest of the uni party's clowns.
David Forman
2025-11-30 15:13:11
Brian, the Tories best mates Clearsprings Ready Homes, Serco and Mears are the ones ordering the taxis and allowed under the accommodation contracts the Tories formulated in 2018. It would be interesting to discover what mark up they charge the Home Office?
Brian
2025-11-30 16:20:37
David that's irrelevant as of July 3rd 2024 we have had a differant set of liars and clowns running the show.
Mr. David morton
2025-12-01 12:04:24
They should be banned full stop from using the nhs facilities, they've not contributed a single penny into the system and its draining what is already in a poor service, if Joe publice wants or is waiting for treatment the list is how long is a piece of string, shambolic comes to mind.
NS
2025-12-01 15:01:27
Mr David Moreton. By that standard, most of Harlow would not be allowed to use the NHS for not having contributed anything...
Mr George
2025-12-01 16:20:10
NS - Well said and your comment made me chuckle too.
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