![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/migrants-missing-in-our-city-after-home-office-abandoned-them-council-leader-says/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TELEMMGLPICT000315037763_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq2vX1u98YPHn7kC8MGPWAvhEtVTYvoHZrweHwT364EPM.jpeg&description=Migrants were abandoned in a new city after the Home Office left them without telling the local authorities they were coming or where they were, a council leader has said. Stephen Evans, chief executive of Norwich Council, said the Home Office did not give its local officials any warning that migrants from Manston were being bussed into the city on Thursday. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Evans said he first read about the group coming to Norwich in a news article. "We hadn't been told. I checked back with colleagues at City Hall - they hadn't been told. So, we don't know who they are and we don't know where they've gone to in the city," he said. "I think that's part of the problem here. As a sector, councils are asking for earlier engagement from the Home Office and for us to be consulted." He added that "of course" councils need to know where migrants are in terms of safety and safeguarding, and often the Home Office usually gives local leaders just a few days' notice when it comes to opening a hotel for migrants in their area. "If the Government engaged councils earlier in the process, we could be on the front foot and it would be a better system for sure," he said. His comments came after a group of migrants were bussed out of Manston in Kent and abandoned in Westminster, as council leaders blamed a 'breakdown in communication' within the Home Office. Westminster City Council Labour leader Adam Hug said a large number of people came into Westminster on Wednesday from Manston with wristbands and Home Office paperwork, but who "were not being dealt with properly". "We believe those people slept rough overnight and ultimately the chaos in Manston and the pressures to get that situation sorted is having a ripple effect with people being left to sleep rough on our streets in London," Mr Hug added. The Home Secretary has come under mounting political pressure over the illegal conditions at the Manston, where at one point as many as 4,000 people were b){kind=link}
‘I checked back with colleagues at City Hall – they hadn’t been told. So, we don’t know who they are and we don’t know where they’ve gone’
Migrants were abandoned in a new city after the Home Office left them without telling the local authorities they were coming or where they were, a council leader has said.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of Norwich Council, said the Home Office did not give its local officials any warning that migrants from Manston were being bussed into the city on Thursday.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Evans said he first read about the group coming to Norwich in a news article.
“We hadn’t been told. I checked back with colleagues at City Hall – they hadn’t been told. So, we don’t know who they are and we don’t know where they’ve gone to in the city,” he said.