West Midlands councils stop resettling refugees amid court bid

A scheme to resettle refugees and asylum seekers has been suspended by seven local authorities in the West Midlands amid legal action.

The authorities say they have "disproportionately carried the burden" of the scheme whilst other councils have refused to participate.

Attempts to urge the government to reform the scheme have failed, the councils said in a joint statement.

The Afghan refugee asylum programme is unaffected, they said.

In a statement issued on behalf of the joint authorities, including Birmingham, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent, the councils said they were "incredibly proud" to have welcomed vulnerable families and individuals seeking asylum for more than a decade under the asylum seeker dispersal scheme, but that it was "flawed and needs fixing".

"Our fundamental issue is that it simply is not right that a small proportion of mainly urban councils in the UK are playing a role in addressing the huge challenge this country is currently facing due to the unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the UK," they said.

The government has pledged to allow a total of 20,000 people to settle in the UK in the long-term under the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme, and previously said "at least a third" of local authorities had offered to participate.

But the seven West Midlands authorities said the majority of other councils, "many in significantly more affluent areas", were not "stepping up and playing their part" in response to the wider challenge.

They said the government should immediately require, not simply request, every local authority in the UK to make an offer to accommodate a proportionate share of those seeking asylum, unless there were compelling reasons not to.

The councils said they would continue to support the Afghan refugee asylum programme, but "changes must be made to the original voluntary asylum dispersal scheme".

Abi Brown, the Conservative leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said participation in the scheme was akin to the government "levelling us down".

"We have challenges already - we're working really hard to ensure that we can improve educational outcomes for young people to grow our economy, to provide good quality housing for people and yet meanwhile we also have to cope with the challenges around asylum dispersal, and it's time really for other places to step up and play their part too."

Wolverhampton Conservative group leader Wendy Thompson added: "We have a great record of settling people into this city.

"Every year, without fail, there have been hundreds of people that have come into Wolverhampton and over the years we must have settled thousands."

The joint authorities, also comprising Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell metropolitan borough councils along with Wolverhampton, said that the Home Office had contested their decision "and we have as a result, taken legal action through the High Court in Birmingham to resolve this issue."

The fundamental case, the statement explains, "is that we volunteered in good faith and as such should be free to leave in good faith - given the scheme's shortcomings".

"Failing to respect our decision is an irrational, undemocratic abuse of power."

In a statement, the Home Office said: "The UK has a proud history of welcoming and supporting those in need of our protection. The government is committed to doing everything necessary to protect the rights of asylum seekers and provide them with the safe, secure accommodation they deserve.

"We are working closely with our accommodation providers to increase the amount of dispersed accommodation available to us. We need the support of local authorities to do that and we are committed to working with them."

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