Pontins Brean Sands could be used to temporarily house Afghan refugees, according to new reports.
Government sources say the holiday park company has offered its sites, and two specific sites have been identified by officials, after the UK airlifted thousands of Britons and Afghans out of Kabul.
It’s not clear which two sites have been identified for possible use, but Brean Sands could be one of them as authorities scramble to accommodate those evacuated from the airport.
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As the Mirror reports, the company owns six resorts, including Brean Sands and Kewstoke in Somerset, Camber Sands in East Sussex, Lowestoft in Suffolk, Southport and Prestatyn in North Wales.
A government source confirmed the news, which was first reported by The Telegraph, saying, “It is fair that we are looking at every option and every offer of support.”
More than 13,000 evacuees have so far been flown from Kabul to the UK, which is more than the 5,000 Afghan refugees the UK expects to repatriate from the camps over the next four months . This is about double the number initially planned under the Afghan resettlement and assistance policy.
Currently, most of the evacuated Afghans are still in quarantine hotels as the country is on the red list, but thousands of people will soon see an end to their isolation in the UK.
Pontin’s headlines recently grabbed the headlines after some guests complained about the quality of their stay.
Yesterday a mom, Shereen Garraghan, 36, told the Mirror that the Camber Sands complex was “the dirtiest place I have ever been” and that the camp was plunged into a power outage during her break . She added: “I’ve seen cleaner prisons. People pay to live in conditions you wouldn’t leave dogs in.”
The company has yet to respond to the allegations.
Hundreds of Afghan refugees arrived in the UK at Birmingham Airport on August 19, 2021 (Image: BirminghamLive)
The British airlift from Kabul will end hours after Britain closed the airport gates to new arrivals this morning.
Around 1,000 eligible Afghans and UK citizens are still at the airport in the Afghan capital being processed and will soon be transported to the UK.
But a cabinet minister today admitted that about 800 to 1,000 Afghans qualified under PFRA will be left behind and will have to escape by other means.
If they are not killed by the Taliban, they may have to cross a land border.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News: ‘We closed the Baron Hotel at 4.30am UK time [where British officials were processing departures], closed the processing center and the doors were closed at Abbey Gates.
“We’ll deal with the people we’ve brought with us, the 1,000 or so people inside the airfield now, and we’ll look for a way to continue to find a few people in the crowd where we can.
“But overall, the main processing is now complete and we only have a few hours left.”
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-08-27 19:55:44
