Haringey has the 2nd highest Asylum Expenditure in England - over £2,000 per household! 10/11/04


Haringey has the second highest expenditure on asylum of any Council in England, beaten only by Kent with its Channel Ports.  This crisis was highlighted this week by William MacDougall, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate in Tottenham.  Haringey's spending on asylum since 1997 has reached over £2000 per household; an astonishing  £186,871,036 has been
spent on the asylum crisis under this Government.

MacDougall explained,

"The cost of asylum support by local councils has risen over thirty-fold under this Government. Britain has become a soft touch on asylum and immigration: the Government have lost control of the system, with Haringey alone having to spend nearly £200mn on asylum since 1997. Tony Blair
promised to run a 'swift and fair' asylum system. This was all talk.

"Such money which could have been spent on frontline services or lower taxes - had the asylum system not been so chaotic, unfair and out of control. The costs are probably even higher when the indirect costs to local councils, like staff time, are taken into account.

"The situation will get worse if Labour, supported by the Liberal Democrats, surrender our veto over new EU laws on asylum and immigration, and allow the European Constitution to give unelected, unaccountable judges more power over our asylum system."

"We will introduce new laws which will allow asylum cases to be decided more swiftly, and remove false claimants rapidly.  Genuine refugees will be welcomed, but those who are not will be swiftly removed.  It should not take months even years to decide a case and then to remove the majority of
unjustified asylum seekers".

ENDS.