Hackney Mayor calls on government to ‘step up’ funding for refugees

Volunteers sorting donations in Dalston. Photograph: Vicky Ilankovan

Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe has called on the government to “step up” its response to the European refugee crisis and commit funding for local government.

The government announced this week that the UK would take “up to 20,000 refugees” from camps surrounding Syria over the next five years but the prime minister’s statement revealed local authorities would only receive funding for one year.

Mayor Pipe did not specify how many families the borough would take in but said Hackney had a “strong history” of offering help and support to refugees.

He said: “We want to stand up and help again. We’re already supporting a number of unaccompanied children and young people who have arrived here over past weeks and months, and are planning for greater numbers should the Government allow more refugees to enter, in particular how we might be able to source accommodation.”

Meanwhile groups offering aid to refugees have sprung up across the borough. Hundreds of residents dropped off supplies to a drop-off point for humanitarian support group CalAid in Dalston on the weekend.

Stoke Newington resident Daphne Giachero, who is setting up a community group to assist the resettlement of refugees in the borough told the Hackney Citizen: “We must keep putting pressure on our council and government to ensure they keep their resettlement pledge: after all we wouldn’t want them to change their minds once the media moves on to another story.

“Crucially, we should also aim to engage with our council at this difficult economic time to affirm that we fully intend on being an active part of the planning and resettlement processes.”

Cllr David Simmonds CBE, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Asylum, Migration and Refugee Task Group, said it was “heart-warming” to see many people offering care and safety to refugees but that it was only “a short term solution to a long term problem”.

Simmonds said: “Local communities that open their doors at a moment of crisis should not be left to pick up the pieces when funding runs out and the world’s attention has moved on.”

Responding to the government’s announcement, Refugee Council’s Chief Executive, Maurice Wren, said: “The programme needs to be front-loaded as the crisis is now and the expansion must happen as a matter of urgency as people are living in desperate situations in the region and cannot wait until 2020 to reach safety.”

Other councils have provided figures on the number of families they will resettle. Camden Council has committed to housing up to 20 refugee families, at an estimated cost of up to £29,000 per family in the first year and up to £40,000 per family per year thereafter.