Comment from Damien Moore, MP for Southport, on the potential use of Pontins to house asylum seekers.

Comment from Damien Moore, MP for Southport, on the potential use of Pontins to house asylum
seekers.

“It isn’t appropriate to house asylum seekers in Southport, and I am deeply worried by the rumours
that I have seen in the press that Pontins may be a potential location.

“We are a town in which over 40% of our economy is built on tourism and hospitality, which we
should be doing all we can to strengthen. It is not in the interests of the residents of Ainsdale or the
wider Southport population to use Pontins as a processing centre for asylum seekers when other
options are yet to be fully explored.

“I strongly believe that for housing asylum seekers we should first look to other sites on the
Government-owned estate – office buildings, disused Ministry of Defence sites, and of course the
Nightingale hospitals which were stood up in the pandemic, weren’t used, and could be stood up
again for emergency asylum accommodation. At these types of sites, arrivals can be better
supervised and more efficiently processed, in a way I think most people in the country would find to
be fairer than using holiday parks.

“Ultimately, we need to accelerate the Government’s plans to remove all those who enter the UK
illegally, and to break these illegal and immoral networks of people smugglers, who wilfully gamble
with people’s lives for the sake of profit.

“I am continuing to speak with the Government and with the Prime Minister’s team, and I was
reassured to hear the Prime Minister say in Parliament on Tuesday that they are looking at “disused
holiday parks”, which of course would not include Pontins. I will continue to do all I can to stand up
for my constituents in Southport.”