Asylum kids to be given home

Council bosses are gearing up to rehome asylum seeker children over the next two years after Scotland was asked to help alleviate the crisis.

South Ayrshire Council said it currently has nowhere for the youngsters to go.

But social work bosses intend to find homes for five children in 2022 and 2023.

The children would be aged under 10 and arrive alone.

The move comes as English councils struggle to find places for hundreds of children and teenagers arriving on small boats on the Channel.

Officials in South Ayrshire hope to place the children with foster families.

A council report said: “The proposal is that by 2023 there would be capacity within South Ayrshire to support up to five, under 10 year- old unaccompanied asylum seeking children, with two being offered a family in 2022 and three in 2023.”

There are currently 308 children in care in South Ayrshire.

Home Office director general Abi Tierney contacted local government agency COSLA asking if Scottish councils could help with the emergency.

South Ayrshire Council officials recommend councillors should approve the proposal to offer care for unaccompanied asylum seeking children in foster families.

The proposal will go before ruling SNP and Labour councillors next week at the Leadership Panel.

The council report, which will be put in front of politicians said: “The intended outcomes are for unaccompanied asylum seeking children to receive the support and care they require when they come to South Ayrshire and for as long as they need it, thereafter.”

Last month, the council agreed a motion to rehome asylum seekers from the Aegean Islands.