UPDATE:

NEWPORT has ranked eighth in the UK for the proportional number of asylum seekers.

A study by the Home Office showed asylum seekers account for one person per 319 in the city, meaning there are about 456 currently living in Newport.

This places Newport eighth in the UK, followed closely by Cardiff, which has one per 322 people.

Long-serving Labour MP for Newport West Paul Flynn, who has long campaigned for a more even distribution of asylum seekers around the country, said the issue was placing services such as health and schools in the city under serious strain.

“Newport has a 200-year tradition of welcoming immigrants,” he said.

“We are made up of layers of immigration and it has worked remarkably successfully.

“But there are strains and burdens, particularly with the health and school systems.

“While most people support having asylum seekers on humanitarian grounds, the distribution should be spread evenly and it’s not.”

He pointed to David Cameron’s constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire, which currently has no immigrants, as an example of what he claimed was an unfair distribution.

“We’d like to have them all, but it’s not reasonable,” he said. “There will be resentment.”

A spokesman for Newport City Council said the authority was working with the Home Office to widen the areas in Wales in which asylum seekers are settled.

“Areas like Newport and Cardiff have diverse, multi-cultural communities and therefore a greater capacity to cater for the needs of asylum seekers from culturally diverse backgrounds,” he said.

“However, across the UK, areas that have rich cultural diversity also tend to have issues with deprivation and poverty.

“Newport is no different – our most culturally diverse areas are also our poorest and these tend to be the areas where the Home Office houses asylum seekers.”

He added asylum seekers made up less than 0.5 per cent of the city’s total population, but concentrating them in a single area could have “significant impact”.

Middlesborough in the north east of England topped the list with one asylum seeker per 173 people while Cornwall was the area with the lowest number of asylum seekers, with only one per 545,000 people.

A Home Office spokesman said the agency will work with councils that raise concerns about asylum dispersal.

"The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and we are committed to providing safe and secure accommodation while applications are considered,” he said.

"Asylum seekers are housed where there is appropriate accommodation available.”

He added arrangements between the UK Government and local authorities have been in place since 2000 and are reviewed regularly.

 

NEWPORT has ranked eighth in the UK for the proportional number of asylum seekers.

A study by the Home Office showed asylum seekers account for one person per 319 in the city, meaning there are about 456 currently living in Newport.

This places Newport eighth in the UK, followed closely by Cardiff, which has one per 322 people.

A spokesman for Newport City Council said asylum seekers were welcome in South Wales, but that those diverse communities also had issues with deprivation.

The council was working with the Home Office to reduce the impact of having concentrations of asylum seekers in particular areas, he said.

Middlesborough topped the list with one asylum seeker per 173 people, followed by Rochdale with one per 213, Glasgow with one per 217 and Stockton-on-Tees with one per 259.

Cornwall was the area with the lowest number of asylum seekers, with only one per 545,000 people, followed by Cheshire east with one per 374,000, Northumberland with one per 316,000, Fife with one per 184,000.

Asylum seekers must be more fairly dispersed around the country, MPs and council leaders from the areas with the highest concentrations have told the Home Office.

Politicians from some of the 10 councils in the country with the largest ratios of asylum seekers to residents said the situation, at a time of cuts to public services, was unacceptable.

Those top 10 were all in Northern England, Scotland or Wales, in places already struggling with unemployment deprivation.

It followed a policy started in 2000 to disperse asylum seekers away from London and the prosperous South East.

Outspoken Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk was furious that the Government was "dumping" asylum seekers in towns like his, causing a strain on schools and health services.

He said: "Rochdale is a cohesive community. We are quite diverse, but this is really upsetting the apple cart and it is creating tension.

"You have groups of asylum seekers, who through no fault of their own have nothing to do because they are not allowed to work, wandering around the town centre, not speaking English."

Dave Budd, the elected mayor of Middlesbrough, which is the only local authority to have surpassed the Government's guideline of 1:200 asylum seekers to residents, said it had "far exceeded its fair allocation".

The town, where one in every 173 residents was an asylum seeker living in dispersed accommodation, was at the centre of the red doors controversy last week.

It emerged some asylum seekers felt stigmatised because their accommodation provided by Jomast, sub-contracted by services giant G4S, had red doors.

That made some feel they were easily picked out by racists and vandals. As a result, it was agreed the front doors would be repainted a variety of colours.

Stuart Monk of Jomast, and Peter Neden and John Whitwam of G4S, will be quizzed about the controversy today by the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Geraint Davies, Labour MP for Swansea West, which is sixth in the national list, was also unhappy with the way asylum seekers were dispersed.

He said the Government should not exploit Swansea's "warm welcome" by "over-burdening us and not providing the resources that are needed to support asylum seekers".

The issue is a particularly sensitive one. A contractor in Cardiff providing accommodation for asylum seekers came under fire this week for giving some clients wristbands which they had to wear to get meals.

In Glasgow, third on the national list, the Scottish Refugee Council did not say the city was overburdened, but did call for a national review of the housing contract, saying it had "grave concerns" about how asylum seekers were housed.

It said Middlesbrough's red doors issue was an example of the Home Office's "poor oversight" of how private contractors house vulnerable people.

Councillor Mike Connolly, leader of Bury Council and lead member in Greater Manchester on asylum seekers, said they have made the point "very clearly to government that we consider the high concentration of asylum seekers - relative to other parts of the country - currently accommodated across our area to be unacceptable".

Greater Manchester covers Rochdale in second position, Bolton in fifth and Oldham in 10th on the national list.

The Home Office said it will work with councils that raise concerns about asylum dispersal.

A spokesman said: "The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and we are committed to providing safe and secure accommodation while applications are considered.

"Asylum seekers are housed where there is appropriate accommodation available. Agreements between the Government and participating local authorities are voluntary and have been in place since 2000. We review these arrangements regularly and all asylum intake has to be approved by the local authority involved.

"We work closely with local authorities to ensure that the impact of asylum dispersals is considered and acted upon.

"We will work with any local authority that raises concerns about asylum dispersal."