China caught supplying Britain with hijabs for asylum seekers and ‘profiting’ off crisis

Internal Home Office igures recently obtained by The Mail on Sunday showed 974 Muslim face coverings were given to those landing on the south coast between January and June 2026 – a rate of 162 every month.

And a Freedom of Information request lodged by the People’s Channel revealed Mitie Group, a company that manages immigration services, had purchased the hijabs from Xi Jinping’s nation on behalf of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

It comes as it was discovered mega-dinghies, used to send hundreds of foreigners from mainland Europe towards Britain in a single trip, were being advertised for sale on Chinese websites.

On Alibaba, often called China’s Amazon, hundreds of purchasable vessels are advertised identical to those used to cross the Channel, including a 32ft dinghy for £2,200.

Half of the engines that power the vessels are also manufactured in China.

The decision to source headscarves from the People’s Republic sparked outrage, given illegal migrants may have made their way to Britain’s shores on boats bought from the same country.

“The Home Office is handing out free clothing to people who arrived illegally, and now we learn it’s made in China — the same country supplying many of the parts used in the boats,” Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, told Britain’s News Channel.

He continued: “The Chinese Communist Party is making a pretty penny out of our migration crisis — profiting when the boats set off, and profiting again when the migrants land.”

Sourcing the hijabs from China also led to claims of moral hypocrisy levelled against the British state, given its stance on Beijing’s treatment of its own Muslim Uyghur population.

The UK Government has repeatedly condemned China’s persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, accusing officals of arbitrary detention, forced labour and systematic human rights abuses.

Britain has imposed sanctions on Chinese officials and called for international accountability.

In 2021, Parliament passed a motion declaring a genocide was taking place in Xinjiang, but successive administrations have stopped short of making an official determination.

Security expert Professor Anthony Glees found the taxpayer-funded headscarf purchases, against that background, particularly galling.

“We know that the Uighurs are badly persecuted and that they are not allowed to wear any religious coverings in China,” he told GB News.

“That China makes hijabs (probably in Uighur slave factories) tells us simply that the Chinese don’t get irony and will sell whatever anyone anywhere wants to buy… That we should buy them from China, however, adds insult to injury, as if they can’t be made here.”

The headscarves deal also comes amid repeated warnings China is running an espionage campaign against the UK.

Last year, MI5 alerted MPs, peers and parliamentary staff Chinese intelligence officers were attempting to recruit people with access to sensitive information about Parliament and Government.

Then-security minister Dan Jarvis described the threat as a “covert and calculated attempt by China to interfere with our sovereign affairs”.

As such, former Royal Navy officer and security expert Stuart Fawcett felt China should be cut off entirely from taxpayer-funded contracts.

He told the People’s Channel: “Whether it’s hijabs or Hinckley Point C, Britain should not be using public money to procure from China.”

A Home Office spokesman told Britain’s News Channel: “We are legally required to provide a basic dry clothing pack to small boat arrivals where needed. We have made progress tackling the small boats.

“Crossings are down significantly and we have just recorded the lowest number of summer arrivals since 2020. We are taking action, with joint efforts preventing over 50,000 crossing attempts and seizing 1,100 boats and engines since the election.”

Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter