A Home Office minister has defended Labour’s plan to house more migrants in middle-class and affluent areas, insisting it is a matter of “fairness”.
Anna Turley said areas would only have to take asylum seekers for which they have capacity, adding that placing them in former military barracks and industrial sites was a better idea than in hotels.
On Tuesday night the Government announced it was closing asylum provision in the Grand Metropole Hotel on Blackpool Promenade, but protests have broken out at plans to accommodate over 1,200 men near the small village of Piddington in Oxfordshire.
“I think this is about fairness, and we won’t be asking anyone to take more than they can,” Ms Turley told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday.
“It’s about their fair share, and we have to look across the country at what is appropriate for areas to take, what is the infrastructure, what is manageable with the local community. So this is about fairness.”
Ms Turley insisted areas such as Blackpool, where there are lower property prices, had already taken their “fair share” of asylum seekers, which had put a “huge burden” on communities and created “real civil unrest”.
Ms Turley said the proposed sites would be more suitable than hotels.
“The priority for us now is making sure that we look after asylum seekers in a secure place, in a place that is much more appropriate and where we limit the impact on local communities,” she said.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday said more affluent areas of Britain will have to house asylum seekers too after over 900 migrants arrived in small boats in the last three days.
Home Office figures show that in the last three days alone 911 people have made the perilous journey from France, including 230 in a single mega boat on Monday.
A total of 3,003 migrants have arrived in Britain across the English Channel since Mr Burnham entered Downing Street 23 days ago.
The PM was speaking after protests at a migrant camp being set up in a former Ministry of Defence site near Piddington, a village of about 400 people outside Bicester.
Locals fear plans to house up to 1,250 male asylum seekers in the area could overwhelm the hamlet.
Mr Burnham said: “I will listen to what people are saying and respond to the concerns that they are putting forward.
“I don’t know the issue yet in detail, but in some ways, as I understand it, it is about creating secure space.”
He added: “It’s obviously going to be challenging, but I am prepared always to listen to people, to work with people, and to pick up legitimate concerns, and I will address those concerns.
“I do have to say, we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers.
“I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part.
“We understand people’s concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington.”
