The UK government has approved controversial plans to house up to 1,256 male migrants near a tiny Oxfordshire village of around 350 residents, Sky News reported on Thursday. To protest the plans, Piddington symbolically seceded from the UK in September.
Residents of the village, which had a population of just 358 in 2021, have fiercely opposed the proposed asylum center at a nearby former military site, raising concerns about its impact on their small community. Despite 285 residents voting in favor of secession in the symbolic referendum, the government has refused to cancel the plans.
British Housing Secretary Angela Rayner personally approved the project on Thursday, according to Sky News. A letter from her department to the Home Office said the facility would “provide a flexible and operationally resilient” response to housing demand and reduce reliance on migrant hotels, the news outlet reported, citing the correspondence.
Although the facility was intended for temporary use, Rayner assessed the project “as if it was for a permanent development,” according to Sky News.
The Home Office used the Urgent Crown Development procedure, allowing ministers to decide the application instead of the local planning authority, which would normally have the power to reject such projects following objections from residents.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blamed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government for the expansion of asylum accommodations, arguing that the policy endangered women and girls.
“Burnham is determined to flood towns and villages across the country with fighting-age male illegal migrants,” Farage wrote on X on Thursday.
“Burnham and his government are putting women and girls at risk,” he added.
The decision comes as the UK deals with an ongoing migrant crisis and continued illegal crossings via the English Channel.
More than 23,500 migrants have arrived in the UK aboard small boats so far this year, according to Home Office data published Wednesday.
Anti-immigration protests and riots have also erupted in the UK in recent years following multiple high-profile rape, murder, and assault cases involving migrants and people with migrant backgrounds.
Immigration topped the list of concerns among Britons, with 40% naming it as one of the country’s most important issues, according to an Ipsos poll published in late October. Nearly two-thirds of Britons expected the country's economic situation to worsen over the following year, according to the survey.
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