Home Office warned of violence and arson risks at Essex airbase holding asylum seekers

There has been an increase in violent incidents at the Wethersfield military base, which accommodates asylum seekers. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Ministers have received an official warning that the UK’s largest accommodation site for asylum seekers is at immediate risk of descending into criminality, arson and assaults on staff, letters released under the Freedom of Information Act show.

The immigration watchdog, David Neal, has written to the home office ministers James Cleverly and Tom Pursglove saying “hopelessness caused by boredom” among hundreds of young men at the Wethersfield airbase will “inevitably” lead to harm.