History
Before the implementation of the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act Wales very few asylum seekers and refugees settled in Wales. There was however a small refugee community. The Vietnamese were perhaps the first to arrive in 1979, followed by Somalis fleeing civil war in the 1980s. Many Somalis settled in Cardiff, attracted by the small yet established community already there (Robinson, 2006).
In 1997 the Welsh Refugee Council commissioned Professor Vaughan Robinson to conduct some research into refugees in Wales. Professor Robinson found that there were approximately 3565 refugees and asylum seekers living in Wales, with 67% living in Cardiff. 70% were Somali, 9% Vietnamese, 7% Iranian, 6% Sudanese and 6% Iraqi.
Professor Robinson found that service provision for refugees at this time was extremely poor and attitudes towards asylum and refugee matters were shaped by a ‘culture of ignorance, disbelief and denial'. An absence of research and information concerning refugees in Wales and a widespread refusal to acknowledge the issues allowed organisations to avoid their responsibilities towards refugees (Robinson, 2006).
The Immigration and Asylum Act of 1999 has had the most significance in the history of refugee settlement in Cardiff. The dispersal of asylum seekers away from London and the South East to other regions of the UK was introduced under the act in order to reduce the demand on areas where there was a lack of housing. The dispersal process was overseen by a new agency called the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), which provided support and accommodation to adult asylum seekers via contracts with various councils around the country. As part of Home Office restructuring, NASS ceased to exist as a directorate in 2006 and all asylum support issues are now dealt with by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA).
Bookmark this page:
Last Updated: 06/10/09
