Asylum Seekers (Hansard, 10 April 2000)

§ 10. Mr. Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne)
If he will estimate how many asylum seekers are residing in Eastbourne. [116794]

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Mrs. Barbara Roche)
No asylum seekers have been dispersed to Eastbourne under the interim voluntary dispersal scheme operated by the Local Government Association, the Association of London Government and the London asylum seekers consortium, although 1,797 households have been dispersed elsewhere since 6 December 1999.
Information on the number of asylum applicants residing in Eastbourne is not available.

§ Mr. Waterson
Why cannot the Minister answer a relatively simple question? Why have the Government postponed dispersal arrangements in the south-east, even though London boroughs are still abusing the hospitality 17 of places such as Eastbourne by dumping asylum seekers there without telling the local authority? Will she and her colleagues stop using patronising and insensitive words and phrases such as "ill judged" and "unacceptable" to describe the legitimate concerns of ordinary people, such as my constituents, as articulated by the Opposition?

§ Mrs. Roche
Clearly, the hon. Gentleman has been elsewhere this afternoon as he cannot have heard my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary's announcement about in-country applicants in Kent. He must also have been elsewhere when the announcement was made about asylum support arrangements for people at ports. He must have been somewhere else entirely in 1996, when the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) introduced the arrangements.
The Government are putting right the shambles that the previous Government created. We will continue to use measured terms to describe the very unmeasured language used by the Opposition.

§ Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)
When asylum seekers are dispersed around the country to be accommodated in towns such as Eastbourne, which have no history of asylum seekers living in them, is it not all the more important for politicians to take care about the language that they use? Will not the sort of rant that we heard earlier this afternoon and the hysteria in the tabloids lead to serious trouble sooner or later? Asylum seekers will be attacked and harassed, and people will be hurt. In the longer term, will not that cause enormous damage to race relations in this country?

§ Mrs. Roche
My hon. Friend speaks with authority and expertise on the subject: not only is he a London Member of Parliament, but he chairs the all-party group which considers refugee issues. He is absolutely correct. We have said with regard to dispersal that we will look into areas where there are multicultural communities and support arrangements. That is why we are also grant-funding the Refugee Council to do just that.

§ Mr. Peter Brooke (Cities of London and Westminster)
In the context of Councillor Caplan's remarks quoted earlier, were the Government prudent to arouse so much hope in so many beleaguered authorities by their overall 1 April start date, when they have patently been unable to deliver it?

§ Mrs. Roche
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, we were very grateful for the remarks made by the leader of Westminster council, which were rather more prudent than those of the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) and other Conservative Members. We have looked at the lessons that have been learned, particularly when the Conservative party was in office, with regard to rolling out the scheme. [Interruption.]The right hon. Lady may laugh, but she was clearly shocked at my right hon. Friend's announcement today about Kent. I should have thought that as a Kent Member of Parliament, she would be rejoicing.