Refugee campaigners have condemned squalid and dilapidated conditions inside a former prison in East Sussex that the Home Office is planning to use to accommodate asylum seekers.
Photographs obtained by the Guardian of the Bexhill site, previously Northeye prison, reveal broken ceilings with wires hanging down, pools of water on floors, rusted window frames and tiny cells with huge bolts on the outside of the doors and rectangular slats that guards looked through to view former prisoners.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, condemned the images. “Accommodating those who have fled beatings and death threats from autocratic regimes such as Afghanistan and Iran in conditions that risk retraumatising them [is] entirely unsuitable,” he said.
“It doesn’t reflect our efforts as a country to defend the rights of those who had their rights trampled on by tyrannical rulers and it does not show compassion and humanity towards them.”
The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, announced plans last week to house people in three government sites, including the one in Bexhill.
The former prison could house up to 1,200 asylum seekers. There had been widespread speculation ahead of Jenrick’s announcement about the other two sites – RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and MDP Wethersfield in north Essex – being used to accommodate 3,700 people between them. The Bexhill site, however, had not had much pre-publicity and came as a surprise to local residents and councils in the area.
Ministers have said they want to end hotel accommodation for asylum seekers as soon as possible and to substitute it for more basic accommodation. Home Office sources indicated that repairs would need to be carried out at the Bexhill site before moving asylum seekers in. Due to the dilapidated nature of the site, these repairs could take some time, raising questions about how quickly people could be moved in. The government expects to move in 800 people by September and 1,200 by December.
Two councils in the area have said they did not receive advance notification from the government over plans to house asylum seekers at the site in East Sussex.
“We know many residents have voiced concerns about the proposals from the Home Office for the Northeye site in Bexhill,” a joint statement released by Rother district council and East Sussex county council said. “We too are waiting for full facts about how the proposal to use the site to house people seeking asylum would be implemented.”
The statement said the two authorities were informed about the plans only a few hours before they were announced and that there had been no previous discussions with the government.
Northeye prison closed in 1992 and later became a training facility for the UAE. This closed in 2019.
A Refugee Council spokesperson said: “It’s deeply worrying to see the government proposing to accommodate vulnerable people seeking asylum in a site like Bexhill, which is entirely unsuitable to their needs. A former prison is a completely inappropriate place to house traumatised refugees.
“These plans are a consequence of an asylum system beset with chronic delays and a record decision-making backlog, as is the significant increase over the last few years in the use of hotels. There would be no need to use former prisons, military bases and hotels if cases were dealt with in a timely and efficient manner.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Any accommodation used in response to the increasing pressures on the UK asylum system will be fit for purpose and meet all relevant housing and health and safety rules.
“The current site will not be used whilst it is refurbished and brought up to the required standard.”
