Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to implement a “fairer” system of accommodation for asylum seekers, despite uproar from communities across Britain.
The Home Secretary said Labour wanted to move to a “mixed model” of asylum accommodation, insisting “no one type of community is bearing the brunt”.
This would include the use of homes of multiple occupancy (HMOs), large military sites, plus medium-sized buildings such as old student apartments and dispersal housing such as bedsits.
Ms Mahmood was asked about asylum seekers in her own Birmingham Ladywood constituency, one of the poorest in the country.
She told The Times: “A change in the population, the demographic and in the housing in which asylum seekers are often housed and the transient nature of that population does have an impact on communities.
“You’re talking to someone who’s had asylum hotels in my constituency, and lots of dispersal accommodation in my own patch and my own city as well. I know these issues well, I know how residents feel about them.
“I get it, I understand that these are things that worry people and I get where they’re coming from. The people in better off parts of the country, really the issues aren’t that different to people who I represent in my patch.”
“You’ve got to get a fair spread and what we are doing with the new model of asylum accommodation and the future of asylum accommodation is think carefully about how you have a fair spread that doesn’t end up being in one community or one type of community.”
Plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers at an ex-military base in the village of Piddington in Oxfordshire were met with protests and labelled “illogical” in terms of security and cost by local councillor Mike Nixon.
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RECAP: Home Office spells out ‘expectations’ on sex and consent for asylum seekers
Asylum seekers have been told rape and domestic abuse are serious crimes as part of government advice on “rules and expectations” of living in the UK.
The guidance forms part of a Home Office document entitled “Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK” which also provides guidance on gender equality and respect in public.
The nine-page document published says it is to help “understand what is expected of you when living in the UK” and the “rules and expectations are not just for people seeking asylum, they apply to everyone living here”.
It advises that rape, sex with someone under the age of 16 and domestic abuse are “serious crimes” which could lead to prison and loss of support and accommodation, as well as affecting asylum claims
A Home Office spokesman said: “We expect everyone who comes to the UK to abide by our laws. If they do not, they will face consequences, including the refusal of their asylum claim and removal from the UK.
“Returns of failed asylum seekers have reached their highest level since 2010 under this Government.”
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