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  • 8 minutes ago
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says that she "understands the strength of local feeling", in terms of local opposition to the use of an army barracks in Crowborough, East Sussex, to house asylum seekers. Mahmood says "we should never have used asylum hotels to house illegal migrants into this country", and that using disused military sites like Crowborough are "part of that solution". Report by Keechl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00I really do understand the strength of local feeling. It's a big change and I do understand
00:04that that's going to cause concern. It's why my department, my officials and I personally
00:09and my ministers have been working so closely with local authorities just trying to make
00:13sure that as we transition out of asylum hotels and into military sites, we do that as smoothly
00:18as possible and try and reassure local communities. As I say, I do understand the strength of
00:23feeling but I do also believe that getting out of asylum hotels is absolutely crucial
00:28for the country. We should never have used asylum hotels to house illegal migrants into this
00:33country. The level of illegal migration and asylum hotel use is far too high. It's completely
00:39unacceptable. I'm determined to sort it out and we will get out of every asylum hotel in
00:44this country and military sites are part of that solution and so we will be making this
00:48move not just here in Cobra but in other parts of the country as well.
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