Asylum system under fire

Tensions are continuing to rise in some dispersal areas

An urgent government review of the way asylum seekers are dispersed across Britain has been dismissed as a pointless exercise by the Conservatives.

Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered the review after the murder of a Turkish refugee in Glasgow, a knife attack on an asylum seeker in Hull and protests over detention conditions in Cardiff.

Home Secretary David Blunkett

Mr. Blunkett himself does not want to be interviewed on the subject.

Since the start of the government's dispersal program, 30,000 asylum seekers and dependents have been allocated accommodation around the country.

This figure includes 6,500 in Yorkshire and Humberside, the same number in the North West and 4,000 in Scotland and the West Midlands.

Among the figures for individual cities, Liverpool has taken 1800, and there are many complaints there about the way the system is operating.

The internal operational review will focus on whether there is sufficient consultation with local councils when asylum seekers are placed in their care.

Lack of integration

A lack of integration into the local community is a persistent problem in all the cluster areas for asylum-seekers.

asylum seekers in hiding

As an approach to this highly complex problem, the Home Office said that Asylum seekers with any potentially useful qualifications - perhaps as doctors or engineers - are to be encouraged to carry out voluntary work in the areas where they live.

Such work, it's suggested, could reduce tensions between local people and the new arrivals.

The Government's strategy is to ensure the prompt removal of all those whose applications finally fail. The removal target for the year to next March is 30,000, and few believe it will be met.

Hunger strike in Cardif Prison

In the meantime, some refugees detained in Cardif Prison have begun the sixth day of a hunger-strike against their detention.

Officials insist there is no question of scrapping the current system and say a review of the scheme will instead concentrate on how it's working.

The General Secretary of the Immigration Services Union, Martin Slade said that the government's plans to remove the increasing number of people whose claims have been rejected were not working.