In time honoured fashion the Labour Party have decided to target their first cuts at some of the most vulnerable in our society - single asylum seekers. From October single asylum seeker over the age of 25 will have their already meagre subsistence allowance cut by 20% tp £35.13 a week as part of an effort by the government to reduce the size of the 'asylum budget'. According to a parliamentary answer to Chris Huhme in January this year, it costs an average of £130 per day or £47,450 per year to keep a person in immigration detention.
As most people held in 'administrative detention', as it is euphemistically called, are there for little or no concrete reason, with many of them being held for years before ultimately being released because they cannot be 'returned' to their country of origin (nor were they ever likely to be), maybe the government would be better off closing a few detention centres to save the money rather than lining the pockets of the shareholders and friendly directors of companies that run them at such exorbitant rates?
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