Stradey Park: Mark Drakeford condemns UK Home Office over handling of asylum seeker housing
The First Minister has criticised the UK Government’s Home Office for its handling of a plan to house asylum seekers at a Llanelli hotel.
Around 241 asylum seekers could be housed at the four-star Stradey Park Hotel with the first families expected to arrive at the accommodation this week.
Mark Drakeford said that the Home Office makes decisions such as those surrounding the use of Stradey Park Hotel “without reference either to the Welsh Government or to local authorities.”
But he insisted that “when it comes to asylum seekers, Wales is committed to playing our fair part.”
The Home Office insisted that it does engage with local authorities as early as possible and works to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people.
The decision to house around 240 asylum seeks at Stradey Park Hotel has caused huge controversy in the Llanelli area with two people arrested during protests there at the weekend.
A legal bid by Carmarthenshire County Council for a High Court injunction to block the plans failed last week.
Although the asylum system is not devolved and remains the responsibility of the UK Government, Mark Drakeford was asked about the matter during his last press conference before the end of the Senedd term.
In response to a question from ITV Wales about the prospect of other areas facing similar issues he said, “When it comes to asylum seekers, Wales is committed to playing our fair part.'
He added: “We take our fair share of asylum seekers and we take them now in all parts of Wales.
“The Home Office has moved on from the days when it did it by agreement. It now does it by simply reaching in, looking by itself, very often without reference either to the Welsh Government or to local authorities, for properties that they think would be suitable.
“In many ways, that's where their problems begin because they start not from that perspective of partnership, but from that perspective, or being a unilateral actor able to use the powers that it has at its disposal to make things happen in the way they think is right.
“We will go on making sure that we take our fair share of the numbers of people who come seeking sanctuary through the asylum system across the United Kingdom. There's no question about that.
“The question is not are we prepared to play our part? We are. We do."
"It's how we can do it with a Home Office that is prepared to recognise that if you're going to have asylum seekers coming to Wales, you can only do that successfully by working alongside the services that are there on the ground, the communities... and where the Welsh Government can play our part in being a broker between what the Home Office has to do and its responsibilities."
The Home Office says it doesn’t comment on ongoing legal proceedings but a spokesperson said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.
“We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day.
“The Home Office is committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and limit the burden on the taxpayer.”