Why Does the UK Government Owe Illegal Migrants Anything?

Close to 1,000 Muslim migrants, all of them illegal, instead of being promptly deported, have been allowed to remain and, we now learn, have been given hijabs that British taxpayers paid for. Christine Douglass-Williams wrote about this here, and more on this display of the UK government supplying an article of clothing that is widely understood as a symbol of women’s oppression can be found here: “British Government Caught Handing Out Thousands of Hijabs to Illegal Boat Migrants,” by Ben Kew, Gateway Pundit, October 4, 2026:

The British government has handed out more than 1,000 taxpayer-funded hijabs to migrants arriving illegally across the English Channel.

According to internal Home Office figures reported by The Daily Mail, officials distributed 974 of the Islamic head coverings to small-boat migrants, an average of 162 every month between January and June.

At that rate, the total handed out at taxpayer expense is likely in the thousands

“The Government must stop handing out hijabs to illegal immigrants immediately,” Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said.

“It’s an insult to hard-working British taxpayers that they’re funding religious items for people who have broken into our country. It should not be for us to fund someone else’s religious practices.”

Many are also wondering why British taxpayers are paying to promote a symbol of female subservience.

Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott recently came out against hijabs forming part of school uniforms.

“I do not believe the state should be party to an instrument of female suppression,” she said.

The taxpayer-funded clothing is being distributed as Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government refuses to stop the boats despite promises to do so.

More than 19,000 migrants have made the journey so far this year, with hundreds, if not thousands, more arriving every week.

Although overall crossings are down from 2025, boats have become increasingly crowded, carrying an average of 67 people per vessel.

The Home Office defended the practice by claiming it has obligations to provide appropriate basic clothing to migrants in short-term holding facilities.

Why does the Home Office owe these illegal migrants anything? Is free housing, free medical care, family allowances, and free clothing owed to them for breaking the law? The British taxpayers owe them nothing. If their coreligionists already in the UK want to pay for their upkeep while their applications for asylum are reviewed, let them do it. But there should be no obligation for British taxpayers to provide these illegals with anything, and especially not the hijab, widely understood as a symbol of women’s inferior status in Islam.

There are two objections to the handing out of hijabs. First, it is religiously mandatory (fard) for Muslim women and girls to wear them. They can be severely punished if they fail to wear them properly, or fail to wear them at all. Think of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian girl who failed to wear her hijab correctly, and ended up being beaten to death by the religious police. Or think of Egyptian-American Yaser Abdel Said, who in Texas murdered his two daughters because they had non-Muslim boyfriends and refused to wear the hijab. Second, in handing out the hijabs, the British government is taking the side of Muslim males in their religiously-sanctioned attempt to force their womenfolk to “hide their sexuality.”