NASS: is this the Final Meltdown!

NCADC have been informed that the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), as of today Monday 9th September 2002, are to stop dispersing new asylum applicants in nationality/language clusters, due to the daily growing back log of asylum seekers stuck in emergency and the lack of settled accommodation. As it stands at present many asylum seekers housed in emergency accommodation are more likely to have their asylum claim decided before settled accommodation is found.

New asylum applicants will be dispersed to the first available accommodation, irregardless of whether there is a support infrastructure in place, established communities or language clusters. Availability of emergency/settled accommodation in Birmingham is so bad that new applicants arriving there from the South East are being put into taxis and returned to Dover.

The situation for emergency/settled accommodation of asylum seekers is now so severe there are rumours that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary may be very close to introducing emergency measures to use military camps for any further overspill of emergency/settled accommodation. Already the threat of war is pushing up the number of Iraqi asylum seekers. If the threatened war on Iraq starts, there will be many many thousands more refugees from the middle east making their way to the UK.