Barnsley has around 267 asylum seekers, (as of July 2024), living in dispersed accommodation across the Borough. Dispersed just means they are in multiple areas, not just one area or town. There are currently NO Asylum hotels in Barnsley. The best place to find and compare factual data is the Migration Yorkshire website: Statistics | Migration Yorkshire

This data dashboard allows you to compare Barnsley, regionally and nationally with other local authority’s asylum numbers and resettled refugees.

In Barnsley, the homes asylum seekers live in are owned or leased by Mears PLC – a public limited company employed by the Government to provide homes for asylum seekers in certain parts of the Country, including Yorkshire & Humber. Asylum seekers have NO access to council housing and are not allowed to join the housing register. They are NOT entitled to ANY benefit payments and receive a ‘subsistence allowance’ each week from the Government.

Resettling refugees who have indefinite leave to remain, are different to asylum seekers. Refugees arrive on approved Government resettlement schemes such as the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Program. This means local authorities are given grant funding to help them resettle, find a home, employment, and access health care.

Not all refugees have indefinite leave to remain; those who come from Ukraine have a visa with an end date. This means they must re-apply if they wish to stay in the country longer. This creates uncertainty and can make resettling much harder to achieve.

If you are interested in migration, both locally and nationally, there are a number of factual websites available:

British Red Cross

• What is an asylum seeker? | Myth Busting | British Red Cross
• Are asylum seekers and refugees living on easy street? (redcross.org.uk)

City of Sanctuary

• Start having courageous conversations about refugee rights – City of Sanctuary UK

Migration Observatory

• Migrants in the UK: An Overview – Migration Observatory – The Migration Observatory (ox.ac.uk)
• Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK – Migration Observatory – The Migration Observatory (ox.ac.uk)

Refugee Action

• Facts about refugees – Refugee Action (refugee-action.org.uk)

Refugee Council

• Refugee & asylum facts – Refugee Council
• The truth about asylum – Refugee Council

UNHCR

• Global Trends report 2023 | UNHCR
• Briefing notes | UNHCR UK

First hand accounts/asylum stories

• Real voices | Freedom from Torture

VOICES Network | British Red Cross

Digital Myth Busters (Communities Inc)