The UK government has introduced legislation that would require some asylum seekers to repay the cost of the support they received before becoming eligible for settlement, a move expected to see affected individuals pay up to £10,000 (about N18 million) where they have the financial means.

The proposed reforms, contained in a bill introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, grant the Home Office new powers to recover the costs of asylum support, including accommodation and subsistence payments, from adults who previously received such assistance and later acquire sufficient financial resources.

Under the proposed rules, repayment would become a condition for settlement for eligible individuals. The measures would also apply to former asylum seekers who leave the UK and later seek to return. The Home Office said the policy is intended to reduce the financial burden of the asylum system on taxpayers by ensuring those who can afford to contribute repay part of the public support they received.

“The cost of asylum accommodation on the British taxpayer is too high,” the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said. “We have already reduced asylum costs by £1 billion, but it is also right that we ask those who can contribute to do so. Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility. Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”

According to Home Office estimates, the average cost of accommodating an asylum seeker is £23.25 per person per night in dispersal accommodation and £144 per night in hotels. Weekly subsistence payments range from £9.95 to £49.18 per person.

Government figures also show that around 25 per cent of people aged 16 to 64 granted asylum between 2015 and 2023 entered employment within the same calendar year they received refugee status. The figure rises to 50 per cent two years after asylum is granted.

Among those employed eight years after being granted refugee status, 37 per cent were in full-time work with median annual earnings of £23,000, while 40 per cent earned above the national minimum wage. The Home Office said the proposed reforms are designed to ensure asylum recipients who are financially able take responsibility for the public costs associated with their stay in the UK.

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Veteran Nollywood actor, Taiwo Adeshina, professionally known as Elegbeje Ado, is dead.

Elegbeje Ado, who is also a pastor, died on Monday, June 29, 2026, after a brief illness.

He was 66.

The founder of Best of Nollywood Awards, Seun Oloketuyi, confirmed his passing in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

Oloketuyi wrote, “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Pastor Taiwo Adeshina, a beloved Nollywood legend.

“Your remarkable contributions to Yoruba movie industry and the lives you touched will never be forgotten. May God grant you eternal rest and comfort your family, friends, and fans. Rest in peace, legend.”

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The Nigerian government will engage with the South African government to seek compensation for Nigerians forced to leave behind businesses and properties amid anti-immigrant protests, Acting Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Alexander Ajayi says.

Ajayi disclosed this during a television broadcast as another batch of Nigerians prepared to arrive under the Federal Government’s ongoing voluntary evacuation programme. He clarified that those being repatriated are individuals who voluntarily opted to return home ahead of the latest planned anti-immigrant protests.

He further noted that the Federal Government has begun documenting the businesses and properties abandoned by returnees to ensure adequate compensation is pursued systematically.

“In terms of the businesses, just three days ago, myself and the South African Deputy Minister of Finance were together and we were discussing this,” Ajayi said. “I took up the discussion with her and we have agreed that we are going to ask our people who are returning to begin to document what they are leaving behind, and that was the message before this set due to land. I have asked them to document very accurately those things they were leaving behind in terms of businesses, cars, and movable or immovable properties. We can now take it up with the South African government. That is the next step we are going to take.”

He emphasized that the process extends far beyond the physical evacuation of citizens.

“This repatriation will not end with just taking people to Nigeria,” he explained. “We are going to systematically follow up on the information given to us, and I told them to be very accurate with what they are going to give because we are going to work with the South African government to get to the exact locations of all these businesses, shops and properties and present them to the South African government for possible compensation because we will not allow the labour people have suffered to build over the years to just go down

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