Across the EU and the UK, asylum seekers receive relatively similar benefits – typically less than £10 a day to cover food, clothing, toiletries, phone costs and travel.
Mihnea Cuibus, a researcher at the University of Oxford Migration Observatory who has done a comparative study of countries including the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, said that “broadly it comes to about £50 or euros a week”.
Charities say this puts asylum seekers below the poverty line, with the British Red Cross last year spending £220,000 to provide clothes for 12,000 asylum seekers in the Manston short-term holding facility in Kent.
This month, an Afghan asylum seeker, identified as FB, successfully sued the Bavarian district of Schweinfurt in Germany on the grounds that he didn’t have sufficient clothing. His asylum application had been deemed inadmissible and he had been waiting to be transferred to Romania, which activists said meant his cash benefits were reduced or withdrawn under German law.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in his favour, saying that asylum seekers must retain a dignified standard of living and access to essential support throughout the process –– including a daily allowance for clothing, communication and travel.
The ruling puts the spotlight on the treatment of asylum seekers across Europe, including in the UK, where campaigners say migrants are often forced to make the difficult choice between food, clothes, soap or a phone call to family.
Arrivals at the Central Registration Office for Asylum Seekers of the State Office for Health and Social Services in Berlin in 2015 (Photo: Sean Gallup/ Getty Images)The UK spent £4.8bn in 2024-25 on asylum support, and a large chunk was driven by reliance on costly hotels. In recent years, it has started to explore military barracks and other large sites that could function as reception centres, but not without controversy.
“Reception centres are certainly cheaper than hotels,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London. “In the 70s, the UK hosted asylum seekers from East Africa in reception centers and that was quite successful.”
But he compared that with the more recent processing of asylum seekers in the Manston centre, which had the clothing crisis, noting it resulted in overcrowding and disease.
“That doesn’t mean reception centres can’t be successful at least as the first accommodation and with faster processing of applications but it still requires a certain investment,” to have basic standards, he added.
The former military base at Manston in Kent now used as a detention and processing centre for migrants who arrived in the UK by small boat (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)Last week, the EU released a new set of rules governing asylum claims. While it doesn’t specify a set daily cash amount for asylum seekers, clothing is explicitly listed as a necessity to maintain an adequate standard of living.
Member states will also be expected to shorten the waiting period before asylum seekers can enter the labour market to six months. Access to work in the UK takes twice as long, and is restricted to a few jobs.
Under the pact, the EU has introduced a solidarity mechanism mandating that member states either accept a share of relocated asylum seekers or contribute €20,000 per person not accepted, to ease the strain on countries that face a larger influx. Since the UK is no longer part of the EU after Brexit, it cannot use this mechanism.
Britain is also excluded from Eurodac – a digital database of asylum seekers, and their point of entry, which is now being expanded.
European countries are looking at standarising benefits and access to work for asylum seekers. Pictured, refugees in Dunkirk, France (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)The migration pact, or Common European Asylum System, standardises systems and expedites asylum seekers’ entry into the labour market to integrate new arrivals while reducing the burden on the taxpayer. But activists say it places heavy emphasis on border control – allowing detention in some cases – and represents a shift from a rights-based approach to a deterrence-based one.
The pact envisages the creation of “return hubs” in third countries for those who have no legal right to stay in the bloc. The EU says these are meant only for people whose applications have been rejected and those who present a security threat, but the idea is controversial, much like the UK’s aborted Rwanda scheme.
There could also be a negative impact on Britain. “If asylum claims are rejected more quickly in Europe, some rejected applicants may attempt onward movement toward the UK,” reports the think-tank UK in a Changing Europe.
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