| Tuesday 13th June 2006 |
205/2006 |
Wigan Council is expected this week (Thursday 15th June) to end its housing contract with the government’s National Asylum Support Service (NASS) and make over 120 council houses available to people currently on the waiting list.
If the council’s ruling cabinet approves, the borough’s remaining asylum seekers – numbering less than 600 out of a population of over 300 000 - will all be housed by private sector landlords.
Cabinet will also decide whether to take part in a joint British Government/United Nations-funded scheme to provide humanitarian assistance to some of the world’s most desperate refugees.
Under the so-called ‘Gateway Programme’, around 80 Ethiopians would leave emergency refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya, arriving in the borough from September. With cabinet approval, the council will work with other public and voluntary agencies over the next 12 months to support up to 25 families.
Councillor Keith Cunliffe, Cabinet Member for Community Protection says:
“We aim to have a good balance between both the needs of local communities and our humanitarian commitments, and ending our asylum housing commitments will make more homes available to people currently on the waiting list.
“But the scale of poverty and suffering in East Africa is overwhelming and we are not about to turn our backs on people who in many cases are traumatised by experiences like torture, rape and dislocation. That would be morally indefensible.
“The Gateway programme is fully government-funded and is working well in many areas across the country, including Bolton, Rochdale and Bury. We are confident it will work well in Wigan too, given our track record in managing the asylum process over the past five years.”
The Wigan-bound families have been identified for resettlement by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and already have ‘refugee status’. They will be supported locally by the following agencies, in addition to Wigan Council.