Plans to move work from a new reporting centre for asylum seekers in Middlesbrough are being considered.
A decision to convert the former HMRC tax office in Russell Street, in central Middlesbrough, were announced by the Home Office last November.
But an anonymous tip-off to the Gazette from a source close to the centre said that “staff had been informed the work was moving up to Newcastle”.
A Home Office spokesman has now confirmed the officials are “reviewing where our teams are located”.
“This is to ensure that our staff are based in locations where their effectiveness is maximised,” he said.
“No decisions have been taken at this stage.”
Middlehaven ward councillor John McPartland said: “This is news to me. I have not been told of this and any developments on it I would like to know.”
The announcement of the new centre came just a month after it emerged that Middlesbrough has the largest proportion of asylum seekers of any area in England.
The borough was exceeding Government-prescribed limits.
The Government says that no local authority area should need to accommodate more than one asylum seeker per 200 of population.
But a Middlesbrough Council report showed almost 1,000 asylum seekers are currently being housed in the town - almost one-and-a-half times the cap.
Most asylum seekers have to report daily, weekly or monthly to a reporting centre or police station.
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