Rochdale council seeks even distribution of asylum seekers across UK

Greater Manchester’s Rochdale borough council has urged the government to evenly distribute asylum seekers across the country to ensure that no area is overburdened.

In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, council leader Neil Emmott took serious exception to the shifting of migrants into hotels in the borough against the local authority’s wishes.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council was given little notice before some 80 asylum seekers arrived at the borough late last month.

The government has set out the Full Dispersal Plan with the legislative intention to prevent the crowding of asylum seekers in one area that would burden the local administration with the obligation to support them. It also aims at reducing the number of people living in temporary accommodation.

Emmott said in his letter to Patel: “We await the implementation of your Full Dispersal Plan and are aware that the detail of the policy is being worked through but recently, against our wishes, hotels in our area have been requisitioned to house people seeking asylum via illegal routes across the English Channel.”

“Notwithstanding the fact that we recognise the need to find accommodation for recent arrivals, we find ourselves again asking what changes have been made to the system and how other areas that have not previously taken part are contributing,” the Labour councillor wrote.

He pointed out that Rochdale supported a large number of migrants, something other local authorities had not done. He said the contrast was “frustrating”.

“As I’m sure you are also aware, this frustration is also being felt by our local communities who are well aware that this situation is not being replicated evenly across the country,” Emmott wrote and warned that the position was “not sustainable”.

He urged the government to expedite the implementation of the Full Dispersal Plan to ensure that “asylum seekers are distributed in a way that does not threaten to undermine public services and public support for the entire programme”.

Emmott made it clear that the dispersal policy should be backed by funding to local authorities to “mitigate pressures on local services.”

The Home Office said all local authority areas were expected to participate in Full Dispersal as the government was dealing with an “unprecedented increase in asylum cases”.