Welsh Ministers have said they have been "completely ignored" over what has been called "wholly inappropriate" plans to shut a hotel in Snowdonia and use the building to house asylum seekers. Conwy Council has said that the hotel is not the right location for a refugee centre in such a rural area, citing a lack of medical centre and transport links among reasons.
Up to 200 asylum seekers are expected to be housed at the hotel near a village without a medial centre and railway station in an area with just 500 residents. Ministers have said this decision - which they have written to the Home Office about - would place extra burdens on local services.
Discussing the plans in the Senedd on Tuesday Afternoon, Lesley Griffiths, minister for rural affairs, North Wales and Trefnydd, said the Welsh Government had “no prior knowledge” of the decision. Ms Griffiths was standing in for First Minister Mark Drakeford who was absent after contracting coronavirus.
Read more: Couple's wedding cancelled as hotel shut for asylum seekers
The MS said that the government had written to the Home Office “as a matter of urgency” to outline its concerns “very, very strongly”. She said that the Welsh Government had been "completely ignored" and that working with the UK Government who are responsible for UK immigration policy as "very hard".
“They’ve got a system now that I think is broken,” the minister added. “They really need to fix this as quickly as possible, because what we’re seeing are the human consequences of that broken system, and I don’t think it does anyone any good.”
Clwyd West MS Darren Millar asked the minister for an urgent statement on an issue that “has caused a great deal of concern amongst the community”. He said: “People want to know what’s going to be done to make sure that they’re not also given additional burdens as a result of this decision, which appears to have been imposed upon all of us from above.”
Ms Griffiths asked the chamber to discuss the plans with "sensitivity and care" and said that "words have consequences." She added: “I would want to appeal to everybody... that it is really best to avoid the use of inflammatory language when we’re dealing with this issue,” she told a plenary meeting.
The news of the temporary detention centre has angered some local residents, with some marking the decision for the Dolgarrog site as "horrendous” and "absolutely ridiculous".
Aberconwy MS Janet Finch-Saunders has also written to UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman to challenge the Conwy Valley detention centre. Demanding the centre be relocated, she said the decision was “completely unacceptable and unforgivable”.
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