Asylum system ‘riddled with abuse’ and needs fundamental change – Jenrick

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Mr Jenrick said he does not think it is unreasonable to ask asylum seekers to share rooms after a group this week apparently refused to enter a hotel in Pimlico, central London, where the Home Office had asked them to sleep “four people per room”. “And if you’re genuinely destitute, of course you’d accept that, and common sense prevailed and, I think, almost all of the migrants in question accepted the accommodation.” He denied it is Government policy to tell asylum seekers they have to share four to a room in hotels, but said it is “completely fair and reasonable” to ask single adult males to share a room. Mr Jenrick told the BBC: “Net migration is far too high today.” But asked about David Cameron’s 2010 pledge to reduce annual net migration below 100,000, Mr Jenrick said: “I don’t think that targets like that are particularly helpful because migration is an extremely challenging space where behaviours are constantly changing.” Net migration to the UK is estimated to have reached a record 606,000 in 2022, up 24% from 488,000 in 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics. Responding to Mr Jenrick’s comments, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “In the media today the Immigration Minister falsely claimed that most people arriving by boat are economic migrants and that the asylum system is ‘riddled with abuse’, when the truth is that the Government’s own statistics show this to be untrue, as the majority of people crossing the Channel to the UK are eventually shown to be refugees.