Unemployed East African asylum seeker jumps London housing queue after family is flown over, claims Times columnist

 

 

In her latest piece for The Times, columnist Alice Thomson relayed concerns of a London councillor whose housing department is feeling the strain amid a record influx of asylum applications

 

By Remix News Staff 31 seconds ago

An East African asylum seeker who was granted leave to remain in Britain was reportedly given a newly refurbished studio flat by a London council, only for officials to be forced to find a four-bedroom house weeks later when his wife and children joined him under the government’s refugee family reunion scheme.

The case was highlighted by British journalist Alice Thomson in The Times, who relayed the experience of a senior councillor in a London borough. “That’s like finding hen’s teeth,” she cites the councillor as saying, noting that larger properties are already vanishingly scarce in the capital.

The asylum seeker in question is understood to be unemployed, speaks no English, and relies on welfare benefits; his wife requires medical treatment and the children school places. The family went straight to the top of the council’s waiting list, leapfrogging more than 2,000 local residents, she claimed.

https://rmx.news/article/unemployed-east-african-asylum-seeker-jumps-london-housing-queue-after-family-is-flown-over-claims-times-columnist/

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