Channel migrants living in asylum hotels are being given taxpayer-funded taxis for all of their appointments, a bombshell investigation has found.
Hotel staff booked cars on an automated system if residents could provide proof of an upcoming meeting, such as a GP visit.
One Iraqi migrant, Kadir, said he was told to take a £600 250-mile taxi ride to see a knee consultant after he was moved to a different hotel.
He was not offered the option to travel by public transport.
Other migrants revealed, in an investigation by the BBC, that they were working illegally in the UK and some said they had set up potentially dangerous cooking facilities because they didn’t like the free catering.
Describing the ludicrous taxi situation, he said: “Should the Home Office give me the ticket for the train? This is the easy way, and they know they spend too much money.
“We know as well, but we don’t have any choice. It’s crazy.”
Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This farce has gone on long enough. I exposed this racket myself months ago, and Labour still haven’t lifted a finger.
“Illegal working is the smugglers’ sales pitch, the reward they dangle in front of those crossing the Channel. It fuels demand, undermines law and order, and tells the gangs Britain is a soft touch. Yet Labour pour ever more taxpayer money into a system wide open to abuse.
“Only the Conservatives have a serious plan to end this chaos through our Deportation Bill. Strip the status of anyone caught working illegally, confiscate their wages, and deport them. This would deter illegal working itself and kill this pull factor fuelling crossings.”
Shocking Home Office figures revealed there are some 32,059 migrants still living in hotels.
This is up 8% from 29,585 in the year to June 2024.
And the issue has been drawn into even sharper focus after the Home Office appealed against a High Court migrant hotel closure order.
Mohammed, from Afghanistan, admitted he had agreed to work illegally before he had even arrived in the UK.
His cousin helped him to secure work for £20 a day.
He told the BBC he had no choice because his family owes money to people traffickers.
One security guard at one of the hotels said: ‘You’ve got nothing to occupy these guys. So of course they’re going to go out there and work.’
Kadir admitted he would rather risk a fire in his hotel room than eat the free hotel restaurant food.
He dismisses that as “chips and chicken nuggets” and says hotel residents have complained it makes them feel ill.
Kadir added: “Everybody, they’re cooking in their rooms like this,” claims Kadir. “We all do it, but we do it undercover.”