UK SPENDS £141M ON MIGRANT SERVICES FROM TAXPAYERS' MONEY: FROM PLAYSTATIONS TO DJ LESSONS
UK local councils have reportedly provided PlayStations, yoga, circus skills, driving, and DJ lessons, sparking a debate about the appropriate use of taxpayer money.
This expenditure reflects broader pressures on local councils, with the Local Government Association noting a near doubling of spending on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to £152.4 million in 2017-18.
Initiatives like the £19 million Controlling Migration Fund in 2018 aimed at integration show government support for these efforts.
This comes as the UK increasingly uses its aid budget domestically, with £4.3 billion spent on refugee costs in 2023, highlighting the complex balance between integration, humanitarian support, and fiscal accountability.
Source: The Telegraph, LGA Report 2019, GOV . UK 2018, ICAI Report 2024
Local Grifter watch!
https://www.samphireproject.org.uk/funders/
'Samphire started life as the Dover Detainee Visitor Group back in 2002. It came into being as a result of concerns felt by a number of local residents about the plight of the people detained at the newly established Dover Immigration Removal Centre – a Prison Service operated facility for detaining up to 400 migrants on the site of a disused borstal on Dover’s Western Heights.'
https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/4008537/full-print
https://www.samphireproject.org.uk/
There's a lot of it about!
https://www.deal.gov.uk/_VirDir/CoreContents/News/Display.aspx?id=72043