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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Diane Taylor

Deadly experiment? UK asylum sites criticised for ‘horrific’ level of despair

United Kingdom the Home Office Wethersfield Suicide Home Office Leonard Farruku Bibby Stockholm Covid-19 Mental Health RAF
An aerial view of part of the former airbase at Wethersfield, where the Home Office provides barracks accommodation for asylum seekers.
Part of the former airbase at Wethersfield, where the Home Office provides barracks accommodation for asylum seekers. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Twice in January, ambulances rushed to the former RAF airbase at Wethersfield in a remote part of Essex, now the Home Office’s biggest mass asylum accommodation site, to attend to suicide attempts. On each occasion, an asylum seeker was admitted to hospital. Both survived.

Acts of self-harm have been common since part of the 325-hectare (800-acre) site, which first opened in 1944, started to be used to house refugees in July 2023.

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