CAMPAIGNERS against the plans for an asylum seeker reception centre in a village near York are to hold a public meeting in the city next week.

York Stand up to Racism, which says York is a 'proud City of Sanctuary and an anti-racist city,' says it is organising the meeting at Priory Street Centre on Friday to look at why the former RAF Linton on Ouse base should not be used to process 'traumatised asylum seekers'.

The Government plans to site up to 1,500 people at Linton for processing of their asylum applications, but the proposals have faced fierce opposition in the small village.

A spokesperson for the meeting organisers said it would discuss what activists in York and Linton on Ouse could do about the plans, which they claimed were part of a wider 'racist strategy' for refugees. They claimed housing refugees in 'highly inappropriate housing like this' was just one more example of the government’s 'hostile environment,' which they said was making it almost impossible to claim asylum despite the UK’s legal obligations.

Speakers at the meeting will include York Central MP Rachael Maskell MP, Nahella Ashraf from Stand up to Racism, Gary McVeigh, regional secretary for the National Education Union, and others from Refugee Action York and the Linton on Ouse action group.

The spokesperson said the former RAF facility was unsuitable and the local area did not have adequate facilities for the 1,500 refugees.

"They should be in good accommodation where they can access public transport and services," they said. "They should feel welcomed into communities where they can become part of local life."

They claimed the Government had intensified a racist ‘Hostile Environment’ by unveiling plans for offshore detention in Rwanda just as the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) had been passed, despite significant opposition.

"The NABA creates two tiers of‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ people seeking asylum based on imaginary ‘legal’ routes,"they claimed.

"The Government is desperate to divert attention from their Covid failings, illegal parties and a cost of living crisis.

"We must say loud and clear that refugees and migrants are not to blame – and that all refugees are welcome here."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "As we continue to work on the plan for the asylum reception centre at Linton-on-Ouse, which will be as self-sufficient as possible, we continue to listen to community feedback.

“We maintain the site is urgently needed to provide essential asylum accommodation and will assist as we end the use of asylum seekers using hotels, which are costing the taxpayer almost £5million a day.

“Our New Plan for Immigration will fix the UK’s broken asylum system, allowing us to support those in genuine need while preventing abuse of the system and deterring illegal entry to the UK.”