As much as a third of the already cut UK overseas aid budget is now being spent on housing refugees in the UK. More than £1bn of the UK’s aid budget was spent on refugees in the UK in 2021. Save the Children estimates that the amount of aid spent on in-country refugee costs could be as high as £4.5bn in 2022-23.
The Parliamentary International Development Select Committee described the trend as unsustainable and unprecedented.
The MPs say it has been a political choice by the government to spend so much of the aid budget on refugees in the UK, and insists it is not required to do so by international rules defining legitimate aid.