Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘not a lifestyle choice’
County Council. We’re the ones who pay for it.
“For a place like the one in Westerham Close, you’re probably looking at around £3,000 a month for rent and bills.”
Mr Hazleden suspects that with student numbers diminishing, landlords are making their properties available to the county council, which has to find accommodation for people claiming asylum in the UK.
Another house in nearby Hovenden Close is also being rented out to asylum seekers.
Neighbour Don Dobson, 82, said: “They’re not much trouble. One day one of them came out and demanded money off me so I told him where to go.
“But he didn’t live there and it looked like the others wanted rid of him because he was a troublemaker.”
KCC spokesman Ella Hughes said: “We continually monitor the welfare and behaviour of children in our care, whether UK citizen children or asylumseeking children.
“We take any suggestion that unaccompanied asylum seeking children may be causing a nuisance very seriously and work to address any concerns.
“The county council is happy to speak to local residents if they wish to raise issues with us.” Kent Refugee Help is worried that government plans pose a serious threat to the well-being of teenagers who fail their asylum applications.
Campaigners took concerns that young people may end up destitute and living on the streets to Canterbury and Whitstable MP Julian Brazier earlier in the year.
If passed, the Immigration Bill will allow landlords to end tenancies, sometimes without a court order, when asylum requests fail. It also aims to target those working illegally.
Kate Adams, of Kent Refugee Help, said: “We are pleased that Mr Brazier listened carefully to us and said he would raise the issue of the destitution of refugee children.
“But let us be clear, destitution will not deter refugees from coming here nor encourage them to leave.
“People come because they have to. It is not a lifestyle choice. Moreover, asylum seekers are not entitled to social housing and are routinely placed in private sub-standard accommodation administered by private companies whose only intention is to make a profit.
“Refugees are not to blame for our housing crisis, which resulted from the sale of council houses by the Conservative government and a failure to control spiralling rents.
“Making refugee children homeless to pay for this is both shocking and indefensible.”