Taxpayers are covering the cost of providing new clothing and footwear to illegal Channel migrants, amounting to over £3,000 per day, The Telegraph has revealed.

Men, women, and children arriving in Dover receive free clothing, including puffer jackets, hats, and gloves in winter, as well as flip-flops in summer. Over the past three years, this has cost nearly £4 million.

The clothing is stored in a large quayside warehouse, reportedly comparable in size to a Matalan or M&S store, complete with fitting rooms. The Home Office maintains a wide range of sizes and styles to replace migrants' clothing, which is often drenched in seawater and sometimes contaminated with fuel, creating health and safety risks.

Additionally, some migrants are provided with free mobile phones to facilitate ongoing communication with immigration authorities. However, the Home Office stated this is rare and did not disclose the associated costs.

This revelation, obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, comes as the Government prepares to introduce new border security legislation aimed at combating people-smuggling networks using counter-terrorism-style measures. The Government has also confirmed it will repeal Conservative legislation that would have enabled the deportation of migrants to Rwanda.

The figures have prompted calls for migrants to be required to reimburse the taxpayer if they are subsequently granted the right to remain in the UK as a refugee. About 66 per cent of Channel migrants in the year to September 2024 were granted asylum.

Tony Smith, a former director general of Border Force, said: “If they are allowed to stay, then they are going to be able to work and earn money. To me, that’s a chargeable deduction on our investment in them like universities, where you have to borrow £30,000 to get your child in to study.”

The new clothes cost the taxpayer £3,733,145 for 2022-23 and the first 10 months of 2024, equivalent to £3,624 a day for the 105,853 migrants who crossed the Channel during that period. It works out at £35.27 per migrant.

In 2022, the record year for crossings when 45,755 migrants reached the UK in small boats, the clothing cost the Home Office £2,047,756.77. In 2023, when crossings fell to 29,437 migrants, the bill dropped to £959,327.66 and for the first 10 months of 2024, it was £726,062.79.

It is understood the migrants are allowed to keep their old clothes, which are stored while the migrants are processed at the Manston reception centre in Kent.

Each migrant who arrives first hands back their life jacket, then has to point on a board to the number for their age and a flag for their nationality. They are checked by medics before going to the clothing store, where they check they have the correct fitting clothes in a changing room. They are then transferred to Manston.

In its FoI response, the Home Office said: “They are provided with a basic clothing pack similar to those issued via the Prison Service, consisting of underwear, socks, T-shirt, trousers/jogging bottoms, sweatshirt and weather-appropriate footwear such as flip-flops/sliders, plimsolls or trainers.

“In colder weather, a coat, hat and gloves are included in the clothing pack. Children are also provided with age and weather-appropriate clothing packs, and – where necessary – nappies are also provided for babies.”

The Home Office declined to give details on the brand of clothes.

It added: “It has been the case since 2018 that some very basic (non-smart) mobile phone devices have been issued to a small number of arrivals on an exceptional basis for reporting purposes, where it was considered necessary to ensure that ongoing contact was maintained with the Home Office.

“However, this is not a regular practice, and we hold no central data of the number of occasions on which it has occurred since 2018, or the cost involved.”

‘Charity sector should provide second-hand clothes’

Critics demanded that the costly practice stop, and the Government should use the voluntary and charity sector to provide second-hand clothes instead of the taxpayer picking up the bill.

Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, said: “The taxpayer should not be footing any new clothing bill.

“If Care for Calais and other Leftie luvvies care so much, they can source clothing from their donations.

“Hard-working British taxpayers are sick and tired of being ripped off by these illegal arrivals.”

Alp Mehmet, the chairman of Migration Watch, said: “There seems to be no end to the Government’s largesse with taxpayers’ money. You arrive illegally, get dried off, re-clothed and put up in comfort to await the inevitable good news that you can stay for good.

“That’s why record numbers will continue to come, and ‘smashing the gangs’ is a pipe dream.”

The Government is advertising a six-year contract worth £521 million to manage Western Jet Foil in Dover, where the migrants arrive, and the Manston reception centre.

In November, it was revealed the UK’s bill for asylum seekers had hit a record £5.4 billion to pay for processing, accommodating and financially supporting the backlog of asylum seekers.

About 35,000 migrants were living in hotels costing the taxpayer more than £4 million a day.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Illegal immigrants crossing the Channel are disrespecting our laws and should not be getting free clothes and accommodated in hotels – costing billions a year. These illegal immigrants do not need to cross the channel – France is safe and has a perfectly good asylum system.

“Labour scrapped the Rwanda removals deterrent before it even started – and numbers of illegal immigrants crossing have subsequently gone up by 30 per cent since the election. Labour has no plan and has lost control of our borders.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. Dismantling the people-smuggling gangs will not only save lives, but also continue to drive down costs such as these.”

Terror-style offences for people traffickers

Ministers have already announced that the Border Security Bill, due to be published on Thursday, will impose mobile phone and travel bans on suspected people smugglers to prevent them committing further offences as part of the new counter-terror-style powers.

Investigators from the National Crime Agency, police and Border Force will be able to use “interim” court orders to ban suspected people smugglers from using mobile phones, laptops and accessing social media even if they have not got enough evidence to prosecute them.

People smugglers caught with equipment such as boats, engines and life-jackets could also face new terror-style offences of preparing to traffic migrants.

Border Force officials are expected to get expanded powers under the 2000 Terrorism Act for enhanced stop and search powers for anyone suspected of being a people smuggler.

The new powers will enable officers to carry out personal searches, examine and seize mobile phones and copy any data on the devices of any suspects at ports and border control.