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Ministers refuse to share asylum hotel locations with delivery firms

Ministers refuse to share asylum hotel locations with delivery firms

Times15-07-2025
The Home Office is refusing to share information requested by food delivery companies who want to prevent small boat migrants working illegally in the gig economy.
Deliveroo asked Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, and Home Office officials to provide the locations where asylum seekers are being housed in hotels.
It said that it needed this data to enable them to identify and block their courier's accounts being used from these locations.
The efforts to crack down on illegal working came after reports that asylum seekers housed in taxpayer-funded hotels in London, Bournemouth and Manchester were working as delivery riders for Deliveroo, Uber Eats and JustEat within days of arriving in the UK on small boats.
Asylum seekers are banned from working during the first 12 months after lodging their claim, unless a decision is made sooner.
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