Migrants told they will have to leave community centre after arriving from Gatwick

The leader of Crawley Borough Council has warned that the authority can no longer help a group of migrants from the Chagos Islands.

In a letter to the government, Michael Jones said the decision was not taken lightly, adding: “We have exhausted the council’s resources in addressing this emergency.”

More than 70 people who arrived at Gatwick Airport from Mauritius were assessed by the council early in June, with 37 left with nowhere to stay and no right to emergency accommodation.

The council opened a rest centre for the group, first at K2 leisure centre and then at Northgate Community Centre.

Such centres would usually only last for 24-48 hours, allowing those involved to make other arrangements.

But the group has been staying at the community centre since June 14, with the council relying on help from charities and volunteers from among its own staff to keep things going.

But the General Election has left the council between a rock and a hard place.

A spokesman said: “With the General Election next week, we do not have the staffing resources to be able to continue this effort, and run the election at the same time.

“Accordingly we have approached relevant government departments for support, but they have insisted this is a local problem.

“We have reluctantly therefore had to inform those using the centre that it will now need to close.

“We continue to try and provide advice and guidance to those in the rest centre in the meantime, so they are fully aware of other support available.”

All 37 people at the rest centre are UK citizens, having obtained UK passports via the Chagossian British Overseas Territories Citizenship scheme.

The biggest community of Chagossians in the UK, around 3,000 people, is in Crawley.

Government guidance for Chagossians moving to the UK is they should make accommodation arrangements before travelling.

In his letter to Ministers, Mr Jones said there was a ‘complete vacuum of leadership’ at the heart of the government.

He added: “We are one single local authority – we can’t be held responsible for the whole international Chagossian community because the government won’t act, despite it being caused by the Government’s own policy decisions.

“We don’t have the money to do it and we don’t have the places to do it.

“Crawley was the first council in England to declare a housing emergency and this was for good reason.”

The council would not comment on how much has been spent on the rest centre, as ‘this is an ongoing situation’.