Mayor of Greater Manchester warns Home Secretary over 'unsustainable' asylum seeker dispersal system

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has warned Home Secretary Sajid Javid that the city-region could withdraw from the asylum seeker dispersal system because of the disproportionate numbers being resettled in the area without sufficient Government support.

In a letter to Mr Javid, who was born in Rochdale, the Mayor said Greater Manchester was had a long and proud tradition of welcoming those seeking refuge but the current system meant that around 70 per cent of the North West’s total asylum population were being resettled in Greater Manchester.

He said that the situation, which the Government had failed to address, was unsustainable and putting a huge strain on the area’s structures and resources.

The number of supported and accommodated asylum seekers living in the Greater Manchester area has almost doubled since 2003.

Local authorities from Greater Manchester have repeatedly communicated their concerns to the Home Office, but the Mayor said in his letter the issue had been ignored time and again.

He wrote: “The people of Greater Manchester have a long history of welcoming people from all over the world to our country and stand ready to do so in the future.  We are proud of and richer for all our diverse communities.  Greater Manchester also has also positively engaged with the asylum dispersal process over many years.

"However, Greater Manchester has continued to accommodate greater numbers of asylum seekers through the dispersal process with figures continuing to be disproportionately high when compared to other regions and other areas within the North West.

“For too long, asylum dispersal has been imposed on Greater Manchester and its communities rather than designed and delivered in partnership with local authorities, with little heed paid to concerns raised about cohesion or about large numbers of people being placed, without appropriate support in our towns.

“It cannot be right that towns in Greater Manchester have more asylum seekers clustered in a handful of wards than entire regions in the rest of the country.”

The demand for asylum accommodation has increased by nearly 60 per cent since April 2014. This increase in demand has come at a time when local authority budgets have faced significant reductions.

In August, unease at the implementation of the revised national asylum seeker dispersal strategy, AAST, was raised by 10 local authorities in Yorkshire, with council leaders stating they were giving “serious consideration” to withdrawing from the AAST process.

In his letter to the Home Secretary, the Mayor of Greater Manchester warned he and the region’s ten other council leaders were also giving “serious consideration” to the area’s future place within the system and called for emergency talks on the issue.

He continued: “Given the enormous pressures your dispersal programme is creating on the public services in this city-region and the implications arising from your AAST procurement I, and the 10 Council Leaders, now need to give serious consideration to actively pursuing Greater Manchester’s withdrawal as a dispersal area.

“An urgent meeting between you and Local Authority representatives from our region would help us to try to recover this position and establish a new working relationship that can ensure Greater Manchester continues to offer high quality support for asylum seekers and refugees.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the wellbeing of asylum seekers and the local communities in which they live extremely seriously.

“We will continue to work closely with Local Authorities across the United Kingdom to deliver on our statutory obligation to house destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are determined. Home Office officials are working closely with local partners, including Local Authorities across the North West to understand and address any concerns they may have.

“We are also working with a wide range of local authorities to increase the number of areas that accommodate and support people seeking protection – every local authority is encouraged to contribute.”