Support for refugees 'cutting aid budget for international disasters'

Britain’s ability to respond to international humanitarian emergencies has been sharply curtailed, watchdog says

The ICAI said a shift in resources from emergency response to supporting refugees in the UK represented a 'significant loss' in the efficiency of Britain's aid spending. PA

The aid budget for overseas disasters is being depleted as a third of Britain’s international aid fund is being spent on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, an official watchdog has warned.

While “in-donor refugee costs” have ballooned in recent years, the UK’s response to floods in Pakistan and drought in Somalia has been delayed and “very limited”, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) said.

In-donor refugees are those for whom protection is a legal obligation and assisting them may be considered a form of humanitarian assistance.

The report from the watchdog will add to the pressure on the government to tackle the issue of migrant boats crossing the Channel and bear down on the backlog in asylum claims.

Under international aid rules, the first-year costs of supporting refugees in a donor country can qualify as official development assistance.

The ICAI said that while the rule has always been considered controversial, it has become particularly “problematic” in recent years, partially as a result of the large-scale visa schemes for refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as the upsurge in Channel crossings.

As a result, it estimates that core expenditure on in-donor refugee costs was about £3.5 billion ($4.3bn) last year, accounting for about a third of the UK’s total aid spend that year.

With the overseas aid budget limited to 0.5 per cent of GDP, the ICAI said the UK’s ability to respond to international humanitarian emergencies had been “sharply curtailed” as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has been forced to pause “non-essential” spending.

“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,” it said.

The ICAI said the shift in resources away from emergency response to supporting refugees in the UK represented a “significant loss” in the efficiency of aid spending.

UK aid to Pakistan - in pictures

There was no incentive for the Home Office to control its spending on in-donor refugee costs as they come from the FCDO budget.

Between October 2022 and March this year, the number of hotels used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers and refugees almost doubled from about 200 to 386.

The ICAI said it had heard “a lot of anecdotal” evidence of safeguarding lapses in asylum hotels, particularly for women and girls, who face significant risks of harassment and gender-based violence.

The findings were backed by the chair of the Commons International Development Committee, Sarah Champion, who called on the FCDO to defend the aid budget from “profligate” Home Office spending.

“This review confirms 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,” she said.

“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.”