Channel migrants given right to work in UKChannel migrants have been quietly given the right to work in sectors including care, construction and agriculture and can still retain access to state-subsidised bed and board under a Home Office scheme.
Nearly 16,000 asylum seekers, including those who crossed the Channel in small boats, have been allowed to work in a single year, according to data obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.
They have been allowed to work in occupations in which there are recognised staff shortages, and are paid 80 per cent of the going pay rate.
The migrants forgo their £49.13 a week state subsistence allowance if they earn more than that, but can negotiate with the Home Office to remain in asylum accommodation as long as they pay a contribution towards the cost.
On Friday night, Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and Tory MPs critcised the scheme, warning that it could act as a “pull factor” to encourage migrants to come to the UK illegally.
Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “This is a disaster. Once the traffickers can advertise jobs and free board, even more will want to come. Rwanda is completely irrelevant in comparison to this.”
The scheme giving migrants the right to work allows them to do so if their application remains unresolved after a year and they have yet to be granted leave to remain in the UK, but the Home Office has refused to reveal how many people benefit from it.
The FOI data obtained by The Telegraph has revealed the figures for the first time. It shows that they have ballooned, largely as a result of a 10-fold increase in the backlog of asylum seekers waiting over a year for a decision and a record surge in migrants crossing the Channel.
The data show that 19,231 migrants applied for work permits in 2022 and 15,706 applications were granted. That represented nearly a third of all the 51,000 asylum seekers in the one-year backlog of claims in 2022. Fewer than 5,000 were waiting more than a year in 2016.
Immigration experts believe the number of working asylum seekers for 2023 could have increased even further because of the extra demand for cheap foreign labour to plug staff shortages in care homes, the NHS, construction and agriculture. Backlogs of asylum seekers waiting over a year rose to 61,000 last year.