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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

My hon. Friend is not quite correct. Since the provisions of section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 became more widely known, those failed asylum seekers are allocated accommodation under what is called ““hard cases support.”” The Government’s preference is that that should be on a full-board basis, but the numbers have grown by more than tenfold and of the more than 5,000 such individuals in accommodation, only 10 per cent. receive full board. The rest are given food vouchers and no other support. It is that situation that I raised with the Home Secretary, and I ask him to consider it urgently because such people are in dire need. They cannot even get the bus fare to travel to the reporting centres, which they are obliged to do on a regular basis.