JAMES Cleverly has told Scotland and Wales to house more asylum seekers – including on cruise ships and former Army barracks.
The Home Secretary wrote to both governments shaming their hypocrisy after bombshell stats show they give homes to half as many migrants as England.
PAJames Cleverly attends the National Policing Board meeting at the Home Office in London[/caption]
England houses 16 asylum seekers for every 10,000 people.
But SNP-run Scotland only takes 8 and Labour-run Wales takes just 9.
The Sun on Sunday understands Mr Cleverly has used his letter to warn both administrations: “It is essential that each part of the country plays its part.”
He told the SNP leader of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, to “revisit” putting asylum seekers on a cruise ship in Edinburgh.
MS Victoria had been used to house Ukrainian refugees.
But the Scottish government refused to house asylum seekers there.
Mr Cleverly also said Wales should look again at housing asylum seekers at the penally army training camp near Tenby.
A huge effort to move asylum seekers out of expensive hotels and into ordinary housing was launched in April 2022.
Each part of the UK was given targets for how many asylum seekers to house – known as full dispersal occupancy targets.
Scotland has not only missed its target, but has seen the number of asylum seekers offered home fall since the new policy came in.
The SNP has just 4,251 occupied bed spaces, lagging far behind their target of 7,133 for 2023. This is down 857 on numbers before the policy was introduced.
In his letter to Welsh leader Mark Drakeford he pointed out they only have 2,896 beds occupied – far lower than their target of 5,318 for 2023.
SNP leader Stephen Flynn has used PMQs to tear into the UK government over asylum seekers and Scotland is happy to give them homes – despite its paltry record.
Speaking in PMQs in December, he thundered: “Those of us on these benches are not afraid to say that we believe migration is a good thing.
“It enriches our communities, it enriches our economy, and it enriches our universities, our schools, our health service and, of course, our care sector.”
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