British authorities appear to be aiming to dump asylum seekers in more rural areas as the government continues to fail to get a handle on the ongoing Channel migrant crisis.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has reportedly told politicians that the government is looking at moving more asylum seekers into rural areas of the country.
It comes as Rishi Sunak’s government continues the Conservative (Tory) party tradition of failing to get a handle on mass migration, with thousands of arrivals continuing to flood into the country from non-warzones every month.
According to a report by The Telegraph, the promise to move asylum seekers into more rural areas comes amid complaints from backbench Tory MPs, who have been complaining that their areas have received too many asylum seekers.
In response to allegations that such constituencies have been “dumped on” with migrants, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick vowed to widen the number of areas migrants would be moved to — instead of committing to addressing the boat migrants crisis problem at its core by, say, towing them back to France and Belgium.
“We are now seeking to procure accommodation more broadly in smaller cities, towns, and indeed in some cases in rural areas,” Jenrick said.
“That does mean I am afraid that as long as numbers are so high that more parts of the country experience this issue, but it does ensure greater fairness as to how, as a country, we tackle it.”
Jenrick’s promise to move migrants to rural areas echoes approaches taken in a number of other European countries.
For example, French president Emmanuel Macron suggested moving asylum seekers to rural areas of France facing population decline back in September, with a similar suggestion being aired in Germany in 2016.
Ireland — either by design or by accident — appears to already be implementing the measure, moving thousands of refugees and asylum seekers into areas with a low population as housing availability in the major cities falls to almost nothing.
This has resulted in serious demographic changes in the areas affected, with at least one town seeing its population double as a result of an influx of refugees.
Meanwhile, another town that is now roughly 20 per cent asylum seeker has reportedly been plagued with anti-social behaviour, with Councillors in the area saying people are now “afraid to walk the streets“.
“I know for a fact that there are people actually afraid to walk the streets or walk down along the road,” one local politician remarked, insisting that she was “not being dramatic” with the statement.