TOWN hall bosses are drawing up a new strategy to make asylum seekers and migrant workers feel more at home.
There are currently 567 asylum seekers in Bury and, based on experience, some are likely to have suffered dreadfully.
Mrs Pat Horan, director of adult care, said: "Our aim is to continue to develop services which are fully inclusive, allowing these people to start to rebuild their shattered lives."
The council does not know how many refugees (i.e., those given permission to remain the UK) are in the borough as people move to other areas to live with family or friends.
The last figure, from 2005, was that 34 asylum seekers were granted refugee status in Bury.
Neither does the council have any figures on the number of people who have come here from Eastern Europe since recent EU expansion. An Audit Commission document from 2005-6 shows that 662,000 new National Insurance numbers were issued to foreign nationals in the UK.
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