Wrexham riots lead to call for change

Housing policy should be changed and greater support offered to
refugees living in Wrexham after riots on a council estate
there.

Marjorie Dykins, secretary of the Wrexham refugee and asylum seeker
support group, said following the violence on the deprived Caia
Park estate at the end of June – which police said had a racial
element – the council should review the way it housed single male
refugees. She said many were being housed in “hard to rent”
properties.

“Sadly, in the past, local authority support for refugees has left
a lot to be desired,” Dykins said. “Following the disturbances,
there has been a great deal of support but it has come after the
event.”

She said some Iraqi Kurds, who were all male, were living in a
“geographically discreet area on the estate”.

“One of the reasons for that was that they felt safer together but
of course when this kind of trouble erupts there is potential for a
group reaction,” she said.

“What we wanted was for the council to help disperse them when they
first arrived. At that time that was not the policy in the housing
department but it will need to change in the future.”

Defending the council’s actions, Trish Johns, of the Welsh Local
Authorities Consortium for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, said:
“Single people are entitled to a service but many local authorities
are not in a position to offer single person accommodation to
anybody – and that includes refugees.”