More than £500,000 a day on average is being shelled out on detaining illegal migrants and moving them around the UK, it emerged today.

Official figures show £186million was handed over in one year by the Home Office to transport and house migrants held in immigration detention and Border Force custody.

The figure, first reported by the Sun, includes moving people between prisons, police stations, hospitals and short-term holding centres.

It also includes the upkeep of Immigration Removal Centres and escorting migrants to, and on to, deportation flights when they’re booted out.

Disclosure of the sum comes after the number of small boat migrants reaching the UK since Labour came to power surged past 80,000 this month amid a rise in ‘mega-dinghies’ carrying more than 100 at a time reaching the UK.

Most of the cash is paid to contractor Mitie, the newspaper reported, which has managed the process for the Home Office since 2018.

The majority of this (£137million) is spent on escorts moving migrants around the UK – the equivalent of £375,564 a day.

The remaining £48million is spent on overseas escorts for migrants where they are taken back to their country of origin either on scheduled or chartered flights.

The figures were released by the Home Office and cover the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026.

The Tories’ shadow home secretary Chris Philp branded the figures ‘a catastrophic waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money’, while John O'Connell, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: ‘The Home Office needs to pull the handbrake on this eyewatering waste immediately.’

A spokesman for the Home Office insisted that the sums ‘incorporate broader expenditure for a significant amount of other services, including immigration detention facilities and wider operational matters’.