Asylum seekers in the UK will no longer be permitted to use taxis to attend medical appointments, after it emerged that the Home Office is spending around £15.8m a year on the service.
From February, individuals seeking asylum will instead be required to use public transport such as buses, regardless of how urgent their medical needs may be.
Despite the change, the government has rejected repeated calls to provide asylum seekers with free access to public transport — something campaigners have argued for over several years as a humane and cost-effective alternative to taxis.
The move follows a government review prompted by a BBC investigation that found some asylum seekers were routinely transported long distances by taxi, including one man who took a 250-mile, £600 journey to visit his GP. Long trips like these are often the result of asylum seekers being relocated to different regions during ongoing treatment, including chemotherapy.
Advocacy groups have long urged the government to introduce bus passes so asylum seekers are not forced into taxis for essential appointments. In 2023, Citizens UK launched a petition, alongside 25 civil society organisations, arguing that providing a bus pass would also help people take their children to school and attend volunteering placements.
A pilot scheme offering free bus travel for asylum seekers began in Oxford in November 2024 after campaigning by Citizens UK, and the Scottish government has committed to delivering free bus travel nationwide by 2026.
Currently, asylum seekers are entitled to one free return bus journey each week. For all other essential travel, Home Office contractors often book taxis — sometimes even when an asylum seeker prefers to travel by bus. One subcontractor in south-east London told the BBC that his company charged the Home Office around £1,000 a day to transport up to 15 people from a hotel to a GP surgery just two miles away.
The government said new rules would ensure taxis were “strictly limited to exceptional, evidenced cases”, such as those involving physical disabilities, serious or chronic illnesses, or pregnancy-related needs. Any such journeys will now require sign-off from the Home Office.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, warned that “there is a risk the threshold will be set too high”, adding: “We know the Home Office does not have one consistent definition or approach for how vulnerability is assessed so there’s a real risk those who need transportation won’t get it.” He added that “the current taxi bill is more a consequence of government incompetence and poor contract management than people in the asylum system exploiting it.”
Solomon argued that the heavy reliance on taxis reflects deeper systemic failings: “The use of taxis is symptomatic of an asylum system that allows private contractors to make vast profits at the expense of the taxpayer because successive governments have failed to deliver the reforms needed to create an efficient and effective system that treats people with compassion and delivers value for money.”
He said the government should end “profiteering contracts” and allow asylum seekers to work so they can support themselves.
The Home Office said it plans to crack down on overcharging by taxi firms and other suppliers through stricter audits and improved reporting requirements, which it said will increase transparency and accountability. These measures form part of wider efforts to reduce waste in asylum accommodation and transport contracts, which the government says have already saved more than £74m.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the administration had inherited contracts from the previous Conservative government that were “wasting billions of taxpayers hard-earned cash”. She added: “I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, authorising them only in the most exceptional circumstances. I will continue to root out waste as we close every single asylum hotel.”
The government has pledged to move asylum seekers out of hotels and into alternative accommodation, including military sites, by the end of this parliament — a shift ministers claim will save £500m.
However, recent figures show that 36,273 asylum seekers are still living in hotels, a number that is higher than it was in June.
Separately, the government said it is increasing removals of people living in the UK illegally, reporting that nearly 50,000 individuals have been removed or deported since Labour took office. Raids against illegal working are now at their highest level since records began, with more than 8,000 arrests between October 2024 and September 2025.
