UK's migrant capital that spends £4.5m on asylum hotels says we 'don't want them here'

Tensions are spiking in a major UK city dubbed the asylum capital of Britain that forks out an eyewatering £4.5m a month on migrant hotels. Glasgow is at the forefront of the UK's immigration system, with more arrivals than anywhere else.

Showcasing their patriotism, rows and rows of Glasgow's streets are lined with blue and white flags as the Scottish city continues to absorb more and more asylum seekers. An eyewatering 3,716 asylum seekers are living in accommodation - up from 849 in 2023 or 59 per 10,000 inhabitants. The number of asylum seekers is now larger than the number of native homeless people in Glasgow.

Of the 1,795 homeless people living in funded accommodation, three-quarters are asylum seekers, and a further 1,204 migrants are living in properties run by housing groups.

Residents have seemingly had enough of the sky high cost of housing asylum seekers in the city with them voicing that they "don't want them here".

George, who proudly has his Scottish flag draped across his balcony, told Sky News: "I am proud to be Scottish. I don't want them here.

"We can't afford to keep all these people coming in," he says. "There's too many people coming in."

Residents fear that the asylum seekers will soon "overspill" locals.

"It looks like they are going to overspill us," an 84-yearold woman told Sky News. She added: "We will be the underdogs."

Glasgow signed up to the UK's "dispersal" system in 1999, in which the Home Office relocated asylum seekers in exchange for money.

Homelessness legislation in Scotland also means councils have to house anyone without a home, whereas in England, only those with "priority need" are given shelter.

Critics claimed this is attracting people to cities like Glasgow, putting a strain on finances and other resources. Asylum seekers who are given the right to stay in the UK become a refugee and are then the responsibility of a local authority rather than the Home Office.

Earlier this year tensions erupted outside the former Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk where around 600 locals turned up to oppose the housing of migrants.