In the run-up to New Year’s Eve celebrations, an Essex village is divided over the welcoming of asylum seekers from a nearby military base to festivities.
Hundreds of asylum seekers are accommodated at Wethersfield airbase, more than a mile outside the village of the same name. For those living within the base’s barbed wire fences, however, the picture-postcard village green, surrounded by Georgian and medieval cottages, is a world away.
Both advocates for asylum seekers and their detractors have strongly opposed the plan to use the airbase for accommodation, with even the home secretary, James Cleverly, whose constituency of Braintree encompasses the base, expressing opposition to it.
But while people are united in their opposition to the accommodation of asylum seekers at the base, there is a deepening rift between those who want to provide support for them and those who dislike them.
Last month, an intrepid group of six asylum seekers ventured off the base on foot and found their way to the Wethersfield Club. The village does not have a pub, but the club, a structure dug out underneath the village hall, serves drinks and provides entertainment in the form of a snooker table, pool and darts. It is described as “very friendly and hospitable” by the Campaign For Real Ale.
After the six men spent an evening at the club – behaving impeccably, according to some witnesses, and introducing themselves politely to people – concerns were raised by some of those running the club about what may happen if large numbers of asylum seekers started arriving.
One village resident, in response to questions about why some were fearful about asylum seekers attending the club, said on social media: “It’s obvious – think of a horror film. The fear is what might happen – the unknown and lack of control.”
An urgent meeting was called at the club and it was agreed that the rule about admittance of non-members, which does not appear to have been enforced for several years, should be strictly implemented, meaning non-members would need to be signed in by a member, with a maximum of two guests a member. The rules will be tested at the New Year’s Eve event at the club, tickets for which are on sale for £10.
Dave Price, a resident and strong opponent of the Home Office policy of accommodating asylum seekers on the airbase, said he had found the asylum seekers polite, but admitted there was “a bit of a range of views at the club” and that the admission rules had become “too lax”.
Another longstanding member of the club, who asked not to be named, said: “I am ashamed and disgusted about this decision by the club. So many of my friends and neighbours really should know better. What sort of a message does it send to people who have come here to flee heavens knows what sort of problems, to be excluded from our society before they have even begun.”
The club has been approached for comment.
While some have tried to welcome the asylum seekers, others have met them with deep hostility. One black asylum seeker who went for a walk in the nearby village of Finchingfield reported being subjected to racist abuse by a group of white people.
“There is a lot of overt racism here,” said a resident who was told about the incident by the asylum seeker.
The landlady of the Finchingfield Lion, Jacqui Braithwaite, who is supportive of the asylum seekers, said her pub had lost some of its customers because of her welcoming stance.
“The worst thing is that the arrival of the asylum seekers has divided us. We are a tiny rural community,” she said. “Wethersfield is definitely the wrong place to accommodate asylum seekers, but the asylum seekers are human beings. It is the immigration policy which is appalling.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are working closely to listen to the local communities’ views and reduce the impact of these sites, including through providing additional onsite security and financial support to the local authority concerned.”
Nick Godley, a resident who is opposed to the asylum seekers being accommodated at Wethersfield but is sympathetic to their predicament, said he and others had concerns about their treatment on the base. He said some of them looked ‘increasingly gaunt’ after living at the base for weeks or months, with many short of clothes.
“We organised an afternoon event with tea and homemade cakes and hired the pavilion in the village to welcome the asylum seekers,” said Godley. “We asked the staff on the military base to let the asylum seekers know, but none came along.
“When we went up to the base to find out why people had not turned up, nobody seemed to know anything about the event we had asked them to tell the asylum seekers about.
“Wethersfield is an experimental site for the Home Office. It is a blot on our society.”
