First published on the "Monk Debunks" substack, which you can subscribe to here.

Do you want to hazard a guess at what this “jaw-dropping” list of freebies included?

What luxuries asylum seekers are being given “for free” in Thetford?

Screenshot from The Express

The article

The Express article was nominally covering the unrest over the last few days in Thetford, sparked by the housing of some asylum seekers in local communities.

While the article mentioned the houses whose “windows were smashed, fences broken and people attempted to break into”, that there was a “back door off its hinges, footprints on a rear window and smashed glass”, and touches on the arrests for possession of an offensive weapon, being drunk and disorderly, inciting racial hatred, and “assaulting an emergency worker, common assault and a public order offence” after a police officer was bitten, it leads with this “jaw-dropping” list.

Regular readers will hopefully have picked up on the use of the quotation in the headline. In this case, the “given for free” quote comes from a neighbour:

When the Daily Express visited the house on Friday, a wheelie bin by the front door was filled with empty cardboard boxes and a list of items a neighbour claimed had been given to the occupants for free.

So what was on this list?

The List

Here is said wheelie bin and the list in question:

Images taken from the Express article

The box contained some bedding, towels, one frying pan, one saucepan, one plate, bowl, mug, glass, knife, fork, spoon and teaspoon and 1 toilet roll…

The absolute bare minimum required to cook, eat, sleep and stay clean.

For asylum seekers who are not allowed to earn any money, have no choice where they live and will be expected to support, feed and entertain themselves for months and maybe years on £49.18 per week.

The pack was labelled ‘Single AASC combines with pans’ and provided by Thomas Kneale and Co, a specialist Supplier to Commercial & Institutional Accommodation Providers.

AASC stands for Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts, which are the contracts through which asylum accommodation and support are provided by various private providers.

The government sets out that for those living in dispersal accommodation while their asylum claim is assessed:

The accommodation provider is also required to provide you with new personal linen when you move into the property.

• Bath towel: 2 (per person)

• Face flannels: 2 (per person)

• Sheets: 2 (per person)

• Blankets and duvet: 2 / 1 (per person)

• Hand towels: 2 (per person)

• Tea towels: 1 (per person)

• Pillows and pillowcases: 2 of each (per person)

• Duvet covers: 2 (per person)

Thomas Kneale supplies these kinds of essentials to asylum seeker accommodations as well as to prisons, university accommodation, hospitals, military and immigration centres.

Others in need of support

These kinds of starter welcome packs are not unique to asylum accommodation. Even the same supplier in this case, Thomas Kneale, also supplies social housing.

Charities, councils and housing associations usually provide these kinds of starter packs to help those moving from homelessness into their first houses get set up.

Whenever you see stories in the media about ‘freebies’ being given to asylum seekers, there is always someone claiming “but what about British people…?”

In the overwhelming majority of cases, British people get the same, if not far more, support than anything asylum seekers are entitled to. They are entitled to cash benefits and housing support that outweighs anything an asylum seeker gets.

For example, a 24-year-old with no family, out of work with no sickness or disability, living near Thetford would be entitled to £98.05 per week in Universal Credit, as well as housing support from the council - double the weekly cash take-home compared to an Asylum seeker.

When you see stories about asylum seekers staying in hotels, remember that around 135,000 homeless households in the UK are also given temporary accommodation in hotels and B&Bs, compared to the 20,000 asylum seekers housed in hotels.

As asylum seekers are being moved out of hotels and into other forms of temporary accommodation, such as the homes in Thetford, it is important to note that they aren’t being “given” a house. These are just temporary places to stay while their asylum claims are processed, and if and when they get granted refugee status, they will have 42 days in which to find a job and their own accommodation.

I covered this process and the inevitable fallout of this system a couple of weeks ago:

Last year The Daily Mail pulled together a list of all the Asylum Seeker “perks” they could find across the media, and of the 17 bullet points, only four were not available to British people - three of which were very specific asylum-related issues that are not relevant to non-asylum seekers, and one was a couple of second-hand PlayStations purchased for £334 for an asylum hotel housing children in Kent!

Asylum seekers don’t receive support instead of struggling British families; they receive support alongside struggling British families.

And yet the media routinely pit them against each other.

British veterans do not lose homes to asylum seekers. They are both supported by the State when needed.

And yes, far more support could be given to all those in our society who are struggling, but the same media and commentators who suggest that asylum seekers are somehow responsible for struggling British families are also very quick to denigrate those claiming benefits as “scroungers”.

Whenever you see a headline clearly designed to make you angry about what asylum seekers are being “given”, please take it with a huge truckload of salt.

Read the article rationally and ask yourself if what they are being given seems reasonable in their circumstances. And then ask what support is available to non-asylum seekers in the same situation to assess if this really is a “perk” of being an asylum seeker or simply the bare minimum of support needed to keep someone sheltered and alive while they are not allowed to work.

First published on the "Monk Debunks" substack, which you can subscribe to here.