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Along with Councillor Ed Plowden, I’ve written to Helen Godwin, the West of England Combined Authority Mayor, about giving free bus travel to asylum seekers.
You can read the letter in full here: 56bd8501-6a32-40ae-8d16-16bdb3e5ec05
The full text of the letter reads:
Dear Helen,
Free bus travel for asylum seekers
We are writing to ask you to consider providing free bus travel for asylum seekers in the WECA
region. You will likely be aware that the current financial support provided from the Home Office for people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim is £49.18 a week — just over £7 a day. For those who
have been placed in hotels, their allowance is just £9.95 a week. Most asylum seekers do not have the
right to work in the UK and so their weekly allowance has to cover all living costs, including travel.
In Bristol a single bus ticket is £2.40 and a day pass is £6.50; for asylum seekers living in hotels this
means over half their weekly allowance spent on just one day of bus travel.
We recently attended an event organised by Bristol City of Sanctuary where we heard powerful
testimonies from asylum seekers about the lifechanging impact that free bus travel would have on
their lives. Many of them currently have to make the incredibly difficult choice of whether to spend
their money on bus travel to access important support services over other essentials such as phone
credit to speak with family members, printing costs for legal documents or suitable clothing. No one
should be put in a position which means taking the bus to see a doctor or to take their children to
school then means they can’t afford other essential living costs.
To give a specific example here in Bristol, many asylum seekers are required to report to Patchway
Police Station as a condition imposed on them by the Home Office. Failure to comply with this has
severe consequences including the loss of asylum support, accommodation and potential rejection of
their asylum application. Patchway is over 5 miles from Bristol City Centre; this means people seeking
asylum either have to walk a 10 mile round trip or spend a significant amount of their weekly
allowance, meaning less money for food, clothing and other vital costs.
Bristol City of Sanctuary, in partnership with FirstBus, have been administering a Transport Fund for
asylum seekers in Bristol. This has been made possible thanks to the fundraising effort by Bristol City
of Sanctuary and the generosity of FirstBus who have match funded Bristol City of Sanctuary’s donations and provided a single bus ticket for half the price. However, this funding is limited and cannot match the demand of the number of asylum seekers needing to take essential bus journeys; this situation has been exacerbated by the increase in bus fares in January 2025.
According to data shared with us by Bristol City of Sanctuary, nearly 50% of the bus tickets given out
from their Transport Fund are used to take young children to a creche and over 30% are used to travel
to mandatory Home Office reporting. In 2024 alone they provided 8640 free bus tickets for destitute
asylum seekers. Evidently the need for bus travel among this group is great, but sadly the funds that
Bristol City of Sanctuary are able to provide are finite.
Oxfordshire County Council have recently undertaken a pilot to provide free bus travel for asylum
seekers in the city of Oxford. Will the West of England Combined Authority join them in leading the
way on this, or at the very least estimating the costs of such a scheme?
Providing free bus travel to this group is a simple yet practical way that our region can demonstrate
compassion and kindness to asylum seekers and to support them to integrate into life in the West of
England.
We look forward to your response.
Carla Denyer MP
Member of Parliament for Bristol Central
Councillor Ed Plowden
Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee