Home Office apologises over asylum seeker plan.
The Home Office has apologised for how it handled proposals to lodge asylum seekers at an East Sussex military facility.
Officials have stated that hundreds of individuals will be temporarily sheltered at a training camp near Crowborough.
Wealden District Council has condemned the Home Office for a “information vacuum” around the plans, which it claims has stoked community tensions and threats against councillors.
Home Office head of asylum accommodation Andrew Larter apologised for the “difficult impact” on councillors and the community.
Answering queries from councillors on Monday, he stated that hosting asylum seekers at the training camp would cost nearly the same as lodging them in hotels.
Costs are projected to reach £100 per person every night, on top of the funds required to make the facility appropriate for asylum seekers.
Mr. Larter informed the conference that camp accommodations would be “more spartan” and “less comfortable” than hotels.
The Home Office has previously stated that military locations will provide better benefits for taxpayers while reducing the burden on communities.
The Labour government has promised to stop hiring hotels, which have become protest hotspots, before the next election.
Christina Coleman, a Wealden district councillor, told the audience that some Crowborough locals had a “great deal of hostility” towards councillors.
She went on to say that she was concerned not only about the ideas, but also about “the way this process has been managed”. Concerns have been expressed concerning the camp’s staffing, police provision, the increased burden on public services, and safety.
Other homeowners have expressed compassion, saying they “didn’t really notice” when Afghans were accommodated at the location after being evacuated from the nation in 2021.
Mr Larter and David Harding, the Home Office’s deputy director of asylum accommodation, told the gathering that the training camp will be “as self-contained as possible,” including medical and recreational amenities.
The couple stated that it was “looking like” roughly 540 asylum seekers will be housed there.
They said that the Home Office was still conducting a community impact study to ensure that the location was “safe, legal, and compliant”. On Monday evening, more than 500 people attended two sessions in Crowborough hosted by Nusrat Ghani, the area’s MP.
She stated that the sessions were fully booked due to a “huge amount of interest”. It was the first time residents got the opportunity to hear directly from the Home Office.
Ms Ghani stated that the military installation, which is located on Crown land, was previously rejected as “unviable” for usage.
She stated that it would take a “remarkable” expenditure to make it suitable, and she was concerned that it would house people for “many, many” years.
Officials, who were heckled by the public, stated that they did not “expect many visits to local GP surgeries” from those on the site.
They stated that they had not publicly confirmed their plan to utilise the location and were unsure when the asylum seekers would begin to move in, but it would not be before the end of November.
The Home Office has stated that people will be housed on the premises temporarily.
Conversation Over Borders, a non-governmental organisation that works with migrants and asylum seekers, previously told the BBC that sheltering individuals at the military base risks “human rights failures” and might “waste taxpayers’ money”.
“Everyone seeking safety deserves a place to call home without being isolated or retraumatised,” it said.
Read more on Straightwinfortoday.com
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.