Asylum-seekers housed in Wales will get a new £1,600-per-month state benefit along with legal aid to challenge deportation orders.
In a letter leaked to a British tabloid daily newspaper, three ministers in the Labour Party-led devolved administration asked British Justice Minister Lord Bellamy to guarantee legal aid for migrants claiming refugee status even if the Welsh government extends the pilot Universal basic Income (UBI) scheme to them.
Welsh social justice minister Jane Hutt, deputy social services minister Julie Morgan and Mick Antoniw, the counsel general and minister for the constitution plan to pay the benefit those who arrived as children when they reach 18.
They expressed concerns that "participation in the pilot may impact on unaccompanied child asylum-seekers’ eligibility for legal aid, in particular the means-testing element."
The Ministry of Justice said that it spent £30 million on legal aid for asylum-seekers in 2022, and would respond to the request "in due course".
“We want to ensure unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are not prevented from accessing schemes and benefits,” the Welsh government said in a statement.
Campaigners for lower taxes and smaller government opposed the move.
“Legal aid is rightly means tested," said James Roberts of the Taxpayers' Alliance. “Illegal immigrants should not be allowed to claim this cash.”
The Conservative British government is currently rushing legislation through Parliament to allow migrants smuggled illegally by people-trafficking gangs to be deported without the legal right to an appeal.
The Welsh UBI programme provides a fixed income of £1,600 per month to 'care-leavers' — those reaching legal adulthood at 18 — for two years. The benefit is more than £400 a month more than teens would earn if they were working full-time at the statutory minimum wage rate of £7.49 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds.
In 2022, it was reported that refugees from the end of the Afghan war were refusing to be settled in Wales or Scotland because it was "too cold" and locals "don't speak English."