Calls for other West Midlands councils to take share of refugees

Council leaders in Sandwell and Walsall have ruled out taking any of the 20,000 Syrian refugees due to come to the UK unless they receive more than the one year of funding guaranteed from the international aid budget.

But the Black Country faces a postcode lottery as Dudley Council has revealed it will take 20 refugee families while Wolverhampton council has said it is working on a plan to accept around 20 people.

Syrian refugees will be funded by central government out of the international aid budget but it is only guaranteed for a year. It is not clear who will foot the bill for anyone who has not been given leave to remain after that.

There were calls today for the government to redraw its 'dispersal' areas for 'supported' asylum seekers after official figures revealed the Black Country has hundreds more than Birmingham while most of Shropshire has none and there are only four living in Cannock Chase.

'Supported' asylum seekers are those in receipt of public funds who would otherwise be destitute because they cannot work while their application to stay in the country is processed. Sandwell alone has 695 while Wolverhampton has 645, Walsall has 234 and Dudley has 226.

These figures account for all supported asylum seekers, not Syrian refugees currently arriving on the shores of Greece and other European countries, many of them travelling by dinghy and risking their lives.

I mean for anyone who views cold, hard statistics in isolation.

It is safe to look at them and tut that the Black Country has taken in so many asylum seekers while wealthier areas have not.

It is safe to look at them from South Staffordshire, Lichfield or Stafford – with not a single 'supported' asylum seeker – and believe this is just something that someone else, somewhere else, has to deal with.

And it is safe to make grand statements about what a welcoming and tolerant country we live in that we are prepared to open our arms to desperate souls fleeing countries trapped between brutal rulers such as Bashar al-Assad and barbaric terrorist groups like the so-called Islamic State.

It is not as simple as that.

Compassion costs money. The government has spent half a decade stripping back public spending to try to get the deficit under control.

So handing councils funding to accept new arrivals from the Syrian refugee camps must surely be at odds with the 'long term economic plan' we were told it was so essential.

Using the international aid budget offers a solution. The £1.8 billion ploughed into projects all over the world has been justified as a way cutting migration to Britain by improving the countries potential migrants live in.

But it is not as simple as that, either.

The money lasts only one year. While David Cameron can promise to help 20,000 people and Labour's Yvette Cooper can hold up a sign saying 'refugees welcome', someone has to put the resources in.

Refugees need support to deal with the trauma of the horrors they have endured.

The communities expected to welcome them need reassurances that health, education and other public services will cope.

Wolverhampton council's leader Councillor Roger Lawrence, chairman of the West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership, said: "Metropolitan boroughs have been designated as dispersal areas by the Home Office. We are arguing that the government should designate other areas in the West Midlands as dispersal areas.

"These are not people funded in any way by the local authorities. They are funded entirely by the Home Office. They are housed in the private sector. Often we do not know where they are.

"And there have been more than 400 people in Wolverhampton since 2013."

Sandwell Council's leader Darren Cooper has informed the Home Office that his borough will not take any Syrian refugees 'as it currently stands', saying that the figures show there is 'clear evidence' that the Black Country has already taken more than areas of similar population size. Warley MP John Spellar, who obtained the figures in a Parliamentary question, said: "The government has been taking money away from councils who have been doing more than their fair share.

"I very much agree with Sandwell Council on this."

Staffordshire County Council has promised to take Syrian refugees.

But a Conservative MP said the the lack of asylum seekers in the county was down to the cost and supply of housing, which meant it was difficult to house new arrivals. South Staffordshire's Gavin Williamson said: "Rural areas often have an acute shortage of housing. The district has a lot of greenbelt land which people want to preserve and protect.

"What we will often see is asylum seekers going to areas where housing is more easily available for them. There's no point offering to come to an area where it is not possible to get them somewhere to live."

The Home Office said it was working closely with councils on the details of the scheme.