05 January 2001
London local authorities are to demand emergency funds to support refugees amid signs that the government's national dispersal scheme is faltering, with hundreds of asylum seekers returning to the capital.
Leaders from the Association of London Government are set to meet local government minister Hilary Armstrong on January 8 to demand the creation of 'special arrangements' to help support the capital's 35,000 asylum seekers.
The meeting comes in the wake of warnings that thousands of asylum seekers are drifting back to London, placing additional pressure on boroughs already spending in excess of £31m a year on refugee support services.
'We are beginning to see evidence that the new dispersal arrangements aren't working,' said Stephen Fitzgerald, director of local government finance at the ALG.
'Boroughs already have severe problems without the dispersal scheme failing. This will put them under even more pressure.'
A spokesman for the Home Office said London boroughs were under no legal requirement to house or pay for returning asylum seekers. He conceded that authorities would have to provide 'secondary' services such as education – one of the highest spending areas for councils.
Home Office figures also show that the National Asylum Support Service, launched last year, has failed to make the impact expected. Just 10,850 asylum seekers have been moved out of London since April 2000. The government had expected to disperse 65,000 by April this year but after a slow start has revised the figure to 44,000.
The spokesman denied that the system was faltering and went on t0 hail it as a success. 'The main aim of the new scheme was to relieve the burden on authorities in London and the Southeast,' he told Public Finance.
'This has been achieved with 10,000 asylum seekers dispersed so far. As a new scheme it will be under constant review, but there are no plans to change it.'
The ALG is expected to ask Armstrong for a special grant of £25m to fund the costs of housing asylum seekers who fall outside the dispersal scheme. It will also press for help with the shortfall of £31m spent on support services and measures to halt the flow of refugees back to London.
These developments come as former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine reignited the public debate on the issue by claiming that 'a large number' of asylum seekers were bogus. Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe, for her part, demanded that all new asylum-seekers should be held in detention.
PFjan2001
