Sandwell council leader's four 'requests' to government over immigration and asylum seekers in hotels
The leader of Sandwell Council has made four requests in a letter to the Minister for Immigration claiming the asylum dispersal system has an "unfair impact on Sandwell", as a second hotel in the borough begins to home asylum seekers.
Sandwell has the third largest population of asylum seekers out of 30 local authorities in the West Midlands region and Home Office plans could soon see more than 360 asylum seekers being placed in hotels in the borough.
It comes as a hotel in Sandwell stopped taking bookings last week in order to start housing asylum seekers, which is the second hotel in Sandwell to do so, and will eventually accommodate 150 single asylum seekers.
Councillor Kerrie Carmichael, leader of Sandwell Council, has published an open letter to the Minister of State, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick, in which she asks the Minister to pause the placement of further asylum seekers in Sandwell and to make a new burden payment to the council to account for the number of asylum seekers being housed in the borough.
