A British businessman is set to become a billionaire, earning vast sums of money from the UK’s migration policies.
Graham King, a former caravan park and disco owner, is raking in £4.8 million (€5.71 million) per day and may become a billionaire from the money earned through housing immigrants, newspaper the Daily Mail reported on November 4.
The entrepreneur, nicknamed the “Asylum King,” will earn a dividend of £90 million (€107 million) from his migrant accommodation business as the UK is seeing record numbers of asylum seekers reaching its shores.
King is anticipated to become the first billionaire in the UK immigration sector, having signed a contract with the Home Office that is set to last until 2029.
The 57-year-old owns the outsourcing firm Clearsprings Ready Homes. This company provides short-term accommodation for asylum seekers while their claims are processed.
Clearsprings Ready Homes has profited from large government contracts to find and oversee residences for asylum seekers to stay in after they get to the UK.
It secured a 10-year contract, estimated to be worth £1 billion (€1.19 billion), with the Home Office in 2019 to house asylum seekers in Wales and the south of England.
To meet these contracts, outsourcers typically rent flats in neighbourhoods but lately, they have begun paying hotels considerable sums to shelter people in the face of a housing crisis.
To accommodate asylum seekers, taxpayers are paying between £127 (€151) and £148 (€176) per migrant per day, or £8 million (€9.52 million) daily.
The company has come under fire for the state of the houses they use to host asylum seekers. Investigators reprimanded Clearsprings over two locations in 2021 for being in “decrepit,” “impoverished” and “run-down” condition.
Last year, more than 70 asylum seekers, including children, slept on the street in protest at two Clearsprings-run hotels in London, claiming they had been crammed into tiny rooms without enough beds, newspaper the Times reported at the time.
According to inspectors, “basic failings of leadership and planning” were evident and almost one-third of the individuals screened reported mental health issues.
Previously, King ran a caravan park with his brother and later became the owner of a disco but lost his licence.
That building was then used to house migrants.
Since starting his real estate company in 1999, King has secured many large government contracts to supply temporary housing, primarily for asylum seekers.
Currently believed to reside overseas, King owns a second business, Bespoke Strategy Solutions, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.
In a reaction to the newspaper the Sun on November 2, a Home Office spokesperson said: “Our asylum accommodation contracts contain a profit-share device so that profits above the agreed margins come back to us.”
Clearsprings Ready Homes declined to comment on questions from the media.
“His daughter Catalina is studying to be an artist and her creations include £10 prints bearing the slogan 'Will trade racists for refugees'.”
Very cute. https://t.co/SC0ef2iUEz pic.twitter.com/pyBxNaAJ9X
— max tempers (@maxtempers) November 3, 2024
