13/06/2026
With so much fear and misinformation around, we owe it to each other to start with the facts.
Thanks to Zoe April Thomas - Green Party Overton ward for checking the figures and explaining what’s actually happening in a way rumours and headlines often miss.
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Spreading False Figures to Frighten People is Not Acceptable.
Here are the real figures with references.
When false information about asylum seekers spreads, it's done to frighten people.
I live in Great Harwood and when I read the claims about hundreds of 'illegals' roaming the streets of my town, I decided to look up the correct figures myself and here they are.
The numbers being claimed by groups, some councillors and far right parties are not just wrong, they're shockingly inaccurate!
In Hyndburn there are 583 real people here. 107 Ukrainians, 64 from Afghanistan on the resettlement programme, and the rest are supported asylum seekers. That's just 0.68% of the total population of Hyndburn.
Conservative Councillor David Heap himself cited 487 HMOs in Hyndburn when he spoke at a recent gathering in Great Harwood this week, but there are only 401 asylum seekers in dispersal accommodation across the entire borough of Hyndburn, that's less than one per HMO.
Source: Official Home Office data, 31 March 2026
gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/immigration-system-statistics-regional-and-local-authority-data
When people come over on boats they go to processing centres in Kent. Then to initial accommodation, often in hotels, mostly in the south of England. Blackpool, for example, has 262 people in hotel accommodation. There are NO asylum seeker hotels in Hyndburn. After hotels, some people may go into dispersal accommodation, which can include HMOs. There are 487 HMOs registered in Hyndburn, around 45 in Great Harwood, housing disabled people, NHS workers, young people and those on low incomes, under-35s on Universal Credit and many more.
At most, around 35 people in Great Harwood could be asylum seekers in HMO accommodation.
Not hundreds.
Those 35 people have risked so much to be here. To find a safe place away from war, persecution and fear. And I want to say something personal to those few people here in our town 'I welcome you. I care about you and I want you to know that.'
The Green Party's position is clear:
"Elected Greens will campaign for a system of asylum and humanitarian protection that treats the applicant fairly, humanely and without discrimination."
Green Party, A Fairer, Greener Welcome, page 35
greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/a-fairer-greener-welcome/ 🌿