BPP COMMENT: If these 'asylum
seekers' ave been refused refugee status why are they still in the
country? Of course these people asking us to welcome these parasites
into our homes are from White middle-class Bingley and not from
Ravenscliffe or Buttershaw.
COULD YOU HOUSE AN ASYLUM SEEKER?
Above: The Reverend Chris Low
and her husband John
Bradford people are being asked to
open their homes to destitute asylum seekers who have nowhere else to
turn.
The Beacon Hosting Project looks
after people who have fled their home countries and have been refused
refugee status.
The organisation is now having to
turn people away because it does not have enough resources.
The project has provided
accommodation for 15 asylum seekers since it was set up just over a
year ago.
The
Reverend Chris Low, 61, and her husband John, 63, of Otley Road, Eldwick,
Bingley, have acted as a host couple to a young West African male
asylum seeker since June last year.
Mr Low said: “Anything helps, even
if it is just for a couple of weeks. There is obviously a psychological
reward in helping a person in need.”
Mr Low said refused asylum seekers
were often left with no support.
He said: “Effectively they are on
the streets.
“They have nothing and I don’t
think that people understand that.
“They really need the support of
groups like Beacon. We feel they are very hard done by and that’s why
we are doing it.”
The asylum seekers who come to the
project are often professionals, including lawyers or medical staff,
who have had to flee their home countries due to their religious or
political beliefs.
Beacon hosting co-ordinator Will
Sutcliffe said the group “badly needs” households able to offer a spare
room, especially to a single man, and that he had had to turn ten
people away in the last month alone.
He said: “Contrary to some media
messages, those who host speak of the joy and privilege of having
people with such rich and diverse life experiences living amongst them.
“Current hosts are single working
adults, a student household, a retired couple, a retired single woman,
a gathered household of young people and a young professional family.”
Beacon can pay a small contribution
towards hosts’ and guests’ expenses.
Anyone who wants to find out more
is asked to phone Mr Sutcliffe on (01274) 727525.
