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Asylum hotel: arguments for and against

JULIE WRIGLEY: "Asylum seekers are draining our resources..."
JULIE WRIGLEY: "Asylum seekers are draining our resources..."
DAVID TURNER: "Asylum seekers have been stereotyped and demonised..."
DAVID TURNER: "Asylum seekers have been stereotyped and demonised..."

As the row over Sittingbourne's Coniston Hotel rumbles on into its eighth week, two of the town's residents have described the impact the asylum seekers' issue has had on their lives and expressed their opposing views on the induction centre plans

JULIE WRIGLEY, leading campaigner against the induction centre plans:

THE issue for me is not racial. It is the loss of our hotel. Apart from the fact that this was done in an underhanded way, the asylum seekers are being put in a hotel that could have been made better use of. They could have used other places without protests from residents.

They need to go to a place like Sangatte until they have been checked out. That is a much better place for them where they can be fed, looked after and given medical care, not in a hotel. That’s a ridiculous place for them.

Asylum seekers are draining our resources as it is and they should wait their turn. We are already here and we need the medical services and school places for our children.

But we are not going to get them because we will be pushed back a bit because they are coming in and are going to need those services.

It is not the racial part. It is the fact that they are coming in and stepping in front of us. And we need the hotel for the town’s business.

As long as this is still hanging in the balance we are hoping that by keeping on and standing our ground, we are going to win.

DAVID TURNER, anti-racist campaigner:

THERE is a perfectly legitimate argument against losing the Coniston as a hotel, and I respect that point of view.

What worries me is the racism and prejudice which has come bubbling to the surface in our town because of this issue.

Sadly, a lot of the people who have been protesting against the proposed asylum centre clearly aren’t concerned only about the hotel.

Asylum seekers have been stereotyped and demonised as criminals, thugs, rapists, paedophiles, terrorists and carriers of disease.

These ideas are based on prejudice, not evidence. John Mangan, from the Swale NHS Primary Care Trust, has explained that asylum seekers do not pose any threat to public health. And Swale Police Supt Jan Stephens has pointed out that asylum-seekers are actually more likely to be victims of crime than to commit crime.

Asylum seekers are fleeing war and oppression. As a major power and the fourth wealthiest country in the world, we should be doing our bit to help.

And history shows that immigration actually enriches us, both culturally and economically.

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