UK’s international aid hindered by asylum-seeker spending: report

Migrants arrive into the Port of Dover onboard a Border Force vessel after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, Dec. 17, 2021. (Reuters)

• Govt criticized for allocating funds to deal with backlog of migrants already in country
• Aid budget stretched further for disasters such as Pakistan floods by cuts under Johnson administration 

LONDON: A report has criticized the UK government’s use of its aid budget on supporting asylum-seekers in Britain, saying it has led to its ability to respond to international crises becoming “very limited.”

Up to a third of the budget, nearly £3.5 billion ($4.3 billion) per year, is now being spent domestically, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said, adding that this had made intervention and spending on aid overseas “less efficient.”

Small boat crossings in the English Channel, combined with refugee schemes for people fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan, were highlighted as occupying a significant portion of the funds.

The ICAI added that the Home Office, which deals with asylum-seekers in the UK, had no incentive to increase oversight or efficiency on domestic spending as the money was coming from the budget of another department, the Foreign Office.

The foreign aid budget was significantly reduced under the UK’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who cut it from 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product to 0.5 percent.

That has led to the Foreign Office having to stop “non-essential” spending, the ICAI warned.

“This was seen in the limited UK response both to devastating floods in Pakistan in August 2022, and to the worsening drought in the Horn of Africa, which is expected to lead to widespread famine in 2023,” the ICAI report said.

The chair of the House of Commons’ International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said the report “reaffirms that our valuable aid budget is being squandered as a result of Home Office failure to get on top of asylum application backlogs and keep control of the costs of asylum accommodation and support contracts.”

An earlier report issued by the committee suggested countries suffering from disasters such as Pakistan, Turkiye and Syria were being “short-changed” by “political choices” made by the government.

Champion added: “It is time for the UK government to get a grip on Home Office spending of the aid budget so that we can return to the real spirit of aid spending — spending that should promote and target the economic development and welfare of developing countries.”