Asylum seekers: Meeting held on migrant housing plan

The Northeye site outside Bexhill-on-Sea was formerly used as a training site until its closure about four years ago

Bexhill's MP has met the immigration minister over plans to house asylum seekers at a site in East Sussex.

Robert Jenrick announced the plans for three former military sites across England on Wednesday.

The immigration minister said the government needed to find alternatives to housing asylum seekers in hotels.

Bexhill MP Huw Merriman said the meeting was to "take forward local concerns" following the news regarding the Northeye site.

The former prison and ex-military base outside Bexhill-on-Sea would house up to 1,200 asylum seekers.

Mr Jenrick said the ex-military sites - which are also in Essex and Lincolnshire - could house "several thousand" asylum seekers.

'Huge challenge'

Mr Merriman said he wanted to find out what the centre would be like, when it would open and what safeguards would be in place.

After meeting Mr Jenrick, the MP said he was told the immigration minister and Home Office wanted to work with people locally.

He said one concern was to ensure there were adequate facilities at the centre so it could be "self-contained and self-sustaining".

Mr Merriman said: "It's a huge challenge for the community there. They are uppermost in my mind."

A joint statement issued by Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council said the councils would work together "to understand and assess in more detail the impact this would have".

Enver Solomon from the Refugee Council said people fleeing to the UK were "very vulnerable and traumatised"

In Essex, Braintree District Council applied to the High Court to block plans to house people at Wethersfield saying it was "extremely disappointed".

And in Lincolnshire, West Lindsey District Council said it was considering "all legal options" over plans to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at RAF Scampton.

Labour shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the announcement was "an admission of failure" on asylum policy.

Enver Solomon, Refugee Council chief executive, said: "It's not the right place to be putting people who have fled the likes of the Taliban's brutality in Afghanistan and the bombs and bullets in Syria.

"These are very vulnerable and traumatised people. It will just result in them being put in warehouse-style accommodation - huge camps where there aren't the facilities to support them and it will cause great human misery at huge cost."

Clare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care 4 Calais, said: "People are stuck in hotels because the government has failed to process people's asylum claims effectively and efficiently.

"Warehousing people in barracks, cruise ships or former prisons is not only inhumane but will not stop people from crossing the channel. The only way to reduce channel crossings is to offer safe passage for people seeking sanctuary."

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