EU-Backed Asylum Group: Release Hundreds of Asylum Seekers into UK Communities

A European Union backed charity that promises transparency into its fundraising has demanded that the British government release hundreds of asylum seekers currently held at an immigration centre into British communities.

Asylum Aid – which counts amongst its donors the BBC’s Children in Need appeal, as well as the European Refugee Fund – has today called on the government to shut down the Yarl’s Wood immigration centre, where asylum applicants are held while being processed, to be shut down.

When asked as to whether asylum applicants would abscond into communities and continue to live in Britain illegally, Zoe Gardner, the Communications Officer for Asylum Aid, said that potential absconders should be released into UK towns and cities at a cost to the British tax payer.

Asked, “Where should they go then?” if not Yarl’s Wood, Gardner replied, “It is a lot cheaper for the taxpayer and a lot more humane to allow these people to live within the community,” she said, claiming that their residence at Yarl’s Wood “further traumatises” them.

“We are talking about people who have entered into the asylum system. Now you only do that voluntarily. These are people who believe they have a good… the best chance of staying in the country”.

“But 100 per cent of people who enter the asylum system aren’t then found to be asylum seekers are they?” she was told. Indeed the British government has recently had to take further steps to stop asylum seekers absconding, given the recent increase in this behaviour.

And in fact, the number of asylum seekers granted refugee status in the United Kingdom hovered around 36 per cent according to the Migration Observatory, which would mean that of a potential 350 Yarl’s Wood asylum seekers, Asylum Aid would support 224 people being released into UK towns and cities, with the potential to abscond.

Even more concerning is that this group is also financially backed by the UK government funded Legal Services Commission (now the Legal Aid Agency) as well as London Councils, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – all tax payer funded organisations.

Phone calls to Ms. Gardner’s office redirected to a voicemail claiming that she was on holiday until September 3rd, despite her Sky News appearance for this morning. When Breitbart London asked Ms. Gardner for further information via Twitter, she became increasingly agitated, and threatened to “mute” our questions.

Ms. Gardiner, who has previously posted a picture of herself holding a sign that says “deport the xenophobes” is also a part time PhD student at the European Institute – an EU-funded school – at the London School of Economics.