North-South row over asylum seeker places

Tony Lloyd

Greater Manchester interim mayor Tony Lloyd has echoed the concerns of Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and says too many asylum seekers are being housed in the region.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/97545/why-has-rochdale-been-placed-on-the-front-line-of-europes-growing-migrant-crisis

Mr Danczuk came in for a storm of protest on social media when he said the number of asylum seekers being placed in Rochdale "is a disgrace".

Mr Lloyd has called on the Government to rethink the process in more diplomatic language.

He said: “The need to give asylum is well established but what is unfair is the incompetence of central government in the way it has placed asylum seekers in this country so that some areas are receiving significant numbers. These put pressure on local schools and health resources. It’s not the asylum seekers’ fault, but of the Home Office’s spectacular inability to manage this process.”

He explained that over 5,100 asylum seekers have been housed in Greater Manchester in the first quarter of the year — more than six times the number in London.

People are housed where suitable housing is available, says the Home Office.