How Illegal Migrants Are Living in Comfort While Brits Struggle to Pay Rent – You Won’t Believe What They Get

A newly elected mayor from the Reform Party in Lincolnshire made headlines across the UK with a loud, patriotic speech promising to crack down on illegal immigration.

At a rally in Grimsby’s town hall, Dame Andrea Jenkyns stood before a cheering crowd waving Union flags and declared she would stop putting asylum seekers in hotels or houses. Instead, she said they should live in tents. “Tents, not rents,” she shouted, adding that if tents are good enough for migrants in France, they’re good enough for Britain.

But just a few minutes’ drive from where she spoke, a different picture unfolds. In a rundown part of Grimsby, three asylum seekers live in a four-bedroom house, paid for by the British government. They have a garden and even Sky TV. The home is funded by taxpayer money, even though all three came into the UK illegally across the Channel.

One of the residents, Abdul, is a 27-year-old Afghan man who invited a reporter into the house. He’s polite and currently learning English. Abdul said he doesn’t want to live in a tent when he has a room he likes. He said he came from Belgium by boat after Belgium rejected his asylum claim.

He wants to stay in the UK and even bring his mother, saying her life in Afghanistan is restricted. But the UK Home Office has already refused his asylum claim, stating Afghanistan is safe to return to. Still, Abdul is appealing the decision — and again, the taxpayer is covering the cost of his legal fight, his housing, and £49 a week for living expenses.

Abdul shares the house with Ahmed, a young man from Yemen who was previously living in a hotel in Sheffield, and Ismail, an 18-year-old Afghan who speaks no English and recently crossed the Channel. More asylum seekers are expected to join them soon. In fact, a fourth man from Sudan, who hid in a car to enter the UK, is expected to move into their house. He claims he’ll be granted asylum soon and hopes to bring his girlfriend, whom he met in Calais, to live with him in Grimsby. He also dreams of drinking beer in pubs, going to the beach, getting a job, and eventually moving to London — even though asylum seekers are not allowed to work.

This kind of migrant housing setup is becoming more common as the government shuts down migrant hotels. The Labour government is trying to save money and reduce public anger, especially with the rise of anti-immigration parties like Reform.

But the government still needs places to house migrants. So companies like Serco, Mears Group, and Clearsprings  who have billion-pound contracts with the Home Office are now turning to private landlords.

These companies are offering five-year rent deals in towns and cities across the Midlands, the North West, and the East of England. Some of these areas are poor and struggling, yet they’re being targeted to house more migrants.

In Grimsby, the house where Abdul and the others live is owned by Mears Group. One room in the house is still empty, but the Home Office plans to fill it with another migrant soon. Meanwhile, the local council housing waiting list has doubled since 2021, but local residents watch as migrants are given homes.

The financial cost is massive. The National Audit Office reports that over ten years, the three main migrant housing providers will charge UK taxpayers £15 billion triple what was originally estimated. Mears Group alone will get £2.5 billion. The number of asylum seekers needing housing has grown from 47,000 in 2019 to 110,000 in 2024.

Despite these high costs, the illegal Channel crossings continue. More than 150,000 migrants have come to the UK this way since 2018, with 1,100 arriving in just the past week, including 601 in one day. Many, like Abdul, come from Afghanistan, which remains one of the top sources of illegal migration to the UK.

The government has started shutting down some migrant hotels  over 190 have been closed so far, with more closures expected — but that doesn’t mean the problem is going away. Instead, migrants are being placed in private homes in working-class areas, changing the character of once tight-knit communities.

In Abdul’s neighborhood, where people used to know each other by name, many now walk with their heads down and avoid interaction. Long-time residents say the area used to be proud and lively but has since declined.

Abdul says he only talks to other migrants like him and not to the British or even other immigrants. “We don’t speak,” he says of the Indian family next door. “They don’t care about us, and we don’t care about them.”

This situation is unfolding in many towns across the UK as more migrants are relocated from hotels to private homes.

While most of the migrants are not causing trouble, their presence, combined with poverty and lack of local resources, is transforming communities in ways that many residents find difficult to accept. The story of Grimsby might just be the beginning of a much larger shift happening throughout the country.