LONDON, July 20: A new investigation has revealed that over 300 asylum seekers residing in taxpayer-funded hotels across the UK have been charged with more than 700 criminal offences over the past three years.

The findings, based on court record analysis from 70 out of 220 hotels used to house asylum seekers, highlight a range of serious allegations including rape, sexual assault, drug offences, theft, and attacks on emergency workers.

According to the data, 312 individuals have been charged with a total of 708 alleged offences. These include 18 charges of rape, five attempted rapes, 35 sexual assaults, and 51 thefts. Additionally, there are 89 charges of assault—27 of which involve alleged attacks on police officers or other emergency responders—as well as 43 drug offences, 18 burglaries, and 16 robberies.

The investigation comes amid continued public concern over the UK's small boats crisis and the rising cost of accommodating around 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels, which is estimated at £3 billion annually.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp responded to the report, saying: “This shocking investigation lays bare the risk posed by these illegal immigrants to the British public. We just need to deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival, with no judicial process, either to Rwanda or elsewhere.”

The report also follows recent revelations about a secretive government initiative to relocate 18,500 Afghan nationals to the UK, an operation projected to cost £7 billion. A rare 'super-injunction' reportedly prevented Parliament and the public from learning about the mission for nearly two years, after an official leak exposed sensitive data involving Afghan nationals—some of whom had previously had asylum claims rejected due to criminal histories.

Official statistics on crimes committed by asylum seekers are not routinely published by the government, and immigration status is not commonly disclosed in police reports, making it difficult to assess the full scale of migrant-linked criminality until now.