Refugees would be welcome in Highlands

Scotland's crisis of depopulation could be solved by relocating asylum-seekers to rural Highland communities, business leaders suggested yesterday.

As the first of 1,200 asylum-seekers from the French refugee camp at Sangatte were being accepted into Britain, Jim Hunter, chairman of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Board, called for the refugees to be encouraged to move north of the border.

"If the population of the Highlands and Islands doubled, we would still be the most sparsely-populated area in Europe," said Dr Hunter, who believes an influx of refugees could help many rural areas to survive.

"The Highlands is one of the few parts of the world where there are fewer people than there were 200 years ago. We have an economy that is growing and in need of a lot of labour," he added.

The Highlands is the fastest-developing area in Britain. A turn-around in fortunes over the past 30 years has halted more than a century of decline. The exploitation of North Sea Oil as well as the development of new industries such as fish-farming and call centres have brought economic stability to the area.

The oil industry has brought massive benefits to the Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney, with the terminals at Sullom Voe and Flotta, and to communities of the Western Isles, Wester Ross and Skye, Dunoon and Bute. The Moray Firth area has also benefited from the Nigg and Ardersier construction yards.

At the same time, a steady expansion of fish farming, year-round tourism, food and drink processing, small-scale manufacturing and service provision have all contributed to the economic growth of Skye, Mull, Arran, Wester Ross, Ardnamurchan and mid-Argyll.

Other industries such as freezer manufacture, fish processing, microchip production, jewellery, carbon fibre, tableware, downhill ski-ing, cosmetics, e-commerce and wind-turbine manufacture have all added to the clamour for skilled workers.

As an example, Lochaber, which used to be an economic disaster zone, now has an unemployment rate of just 1.5 per cent and there are three times as many vacancies at the Fort William job centre as there are people unemployed. "Scotland is a country which is losing population year after year yet there is still some opposition to letting these people come here and do the jobs which we need done," said Dr Hunter, referring to the controversy over the provision of four-year work visas for the 1,200 asylum-seekers from the Sangatte camp, which has been closed. "There are jobs in fish processing and support services, which could easily be done by asylum-seekers."

His views were echoed by the Confederation of British Industry Scotland, which said the whole country could benefit from the skills many asylum- seekers had to offer. "Scotland does require an increasing number of economically active residents," Allan Hogarth, a spokesman, said.

"Depopulation in Scotland is still a problem for the economy even though Inverness is one of the fastest-growing cities. There are skill shortages across the country in many different areas of work and in trades such as construction.

"Many of the more remote areas, by their very nature, find it hard to attract people from urban areas even though they may have a better quality of life to offer than many places. A lot of asylum-seekers may well relish the chance to fill those vacancies, help themselves in life and help us."

Iain Duff, of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, agreed that asylum-seekers could provide many of the skills that are in such short supply in the Highlands, and all over Scotland.

Mr Duff said: "One of main priorities is to attract and retain more appropriately skilled people to Scotland. Attracting asylum-seekers to Scotland would be a good idea and, provided they have the right skills, we would fully support such an initiative."