Aberdeen City Council statement on refugee crisis

17 September 2015

Aberdeen City Council Leader Jenny has made the following statement today (Friday) in response to the ongoing international refugee crisis and a summit meeting held in Edinburgh on Thursday between UK and Scottish governments and local councils across Scotland. 

Councillor Laing said: "This is clearly a worldwide humanitarian crisis that requires an international as well as a national response, and Aberdeen City Council stands ready to play its part in the process of assisting those who are fleeing conflict.

We were pleased to attend yesterday's summit in Edinburgh attended by council representatives from across Scotland as well as the UK and Scottish governments.

An agreement was reached that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) will take the lead on negotiations with the UK and Scottish Government around funding on behalf of all councils in Scotland.

In Aberdeen, we will be playing our part and taking refugees under the UK Home Office's Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.

As outlined by Cosla, councils will now be working on identifying the best means of managing the arrival of refugees and help them to integrate into our communities.

We will be discussing the wide-ranging package of support that will be required for accepting these refugees, which will cover areas including health care, DWP benefits, education and housing.

Aberdeen City Council is also in discussion with community groups and will be arranging a multi-agency taskforce meeting next week."