Nearly 100 asylum seekers, including suspected victims of torture and human trafficking, have been moved out of a controversial RAF base that has been condemned by both Priti Patel and home secretary James Cleverly, The Independent can reveal.
The migrants, who were being housed at RAF Wethersfield, were quietly sent to hotels after the Home Office admitted it was an unsuitable place for them to stay.
The former airbase in Essex has been described as an “open prison camp”, with desperate migrants attempting suicide, going on hunger strike and trying to set themselves on fire, according to testimony from asylum seekers inside. It is also the subject of a legal challenge launched by refugee charity Care4Calais.
Mr Cleverly said at the end of last year that he would try to close down the site – located in his constituency – “as soon as practicable”.
Former home secretary Priti Patel has also described the site as not fit for purpose, and as having “no infrastructure, no amenities” nearby. She also accused the government of being “secretive” and “evasive” about how long Wethersfield would be used for.
Former home secretary Priti Patel has previously said the camp is not fit for purpose— (PA Wire)
New data, only revealed in response to a freedom of information request, shows that 90 asylum seekers have been moved out since the camp came into use in July 2023. Some 676 asylum seekers have been sent there since it opened, according to figures that cover the period until the end of November last year.
According to the Home Office, those who were moved out were suspected victims of modern slavery, had claims of human trafficking, or had complex health needs that could not be managed on the site. Others had claimed to be victims of torture, or said they were children.
An aerial view of RAF Wethersfield in Essex— (PA)
The true number who have left the camp is likely to be higher, as the FOI data only runs to the end of November, and charities say that more have been helped to leave since then.
Senior Tory Sir Edward Leigh – who has been campaigning against the use of an RAF base in his Gainsborough constituency – told The Independent that the latest figures show that it is time for a rethink. “Housing illegal migrants at military bases is just not working,” said the former minister. “There are so many problems with old buildings in need of upgrades, and at vast expense. It’s not what our bases are for.”
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: “The home secretary has previously declared this accommodation unsuitable, yet his department still continues to use it for vulnerable people. This hypocrisy and chaos reflects the sorry state of the broken Tory asylum system.”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said it is “unacceptable for anyone to be held in living conditions that pose a risk to their health”. He added: “It is especially grotesque that vulnerable victims of modern slavery would be allowed to live there, even after the former foreign secretary himself expressed concerns.”
Tory councillor Graham Butland, the leader of Braintree District Council, said Wethersfield is “an unsuitable site for large-scale asylum seeker accommodation”. He cited the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, and the impact it could have on the local community.
Lawyers for refugee charity Care4Calais have launched legal action against the government over its use of the site, which they say is a de facto detention centre and not suitable for long-term accommodation. Asylum seekers are confined to the camp, apart from allotted bus trips, and the base only has one entrance and exit that opens onto a country road.
One of their clients, 19-year-old Yonas, was sent to the airbase despite detailing a history of torture. An asylum seeker from Eritrea, he said he was captured in Libya, held in an overcrowded warehouse with 250 other people, and beaten.
He was then sent to the former RAF base directly after arriving in the UK in early July last year, and was there for three months.
He was able to challenge his move to Wethersfield on the grounds that it was unsuitable. His claim was successful, and he has now been moved to a hotel. He said: “I was detained and tortured for seven months in Libya. I came to the UK for a safe future, and when I arrived the government sent me to a prison camp.
Asylum seekers at Wethersfield airbase have described it as being ‘like a prison’— (PA)
“It was so far away from anywhere. We were kept behind fences. We couldn’t leave. I don’t know why I, someone who has experienced torture, was ever sent there.”
A report last month by charity the Helen Bamber Foundation found that children, survivors of torture and trafficking, and people with severe mental illness were being held at the site, despite government guidance making clear that these groups should not be housed there.
Doctors for the organisation whose members interviewed Wethersfield residents found that some were experiencing worsening PTSD symptoms, and all presented with clinical depression.
The human rights organisation, Humans for Rights Network, said that 11 children, who were wrongly being treated as adults, had been placed in the centre.
More than 600 asylum seekers have been housed at the former airbase in Essex since it came into use last July— (PA)
As of October last year, the main countries of origin of migrants being held at Wethersfield were Afghanistan (29 per cent), Iran (20 per cent) and Eritrea (16 per cent). One of the men interviewed for the Helen Bamber report said that he had attempted suicide because of the conditions inside the camp, adding that a group of six or seven people had tried to set themselves on fire in protest.
Last year Mr Cleverly said the Wethersfield site “wasn’t appropriate for asylum accommodation”, adding that the remote base had limited access to transport infrastructure. He added: “I will continue to really push down the illegal migration so we can close down the asylum centre as soon as practicable.”
Plans to use the site were announced by the then immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, in March 2023, with Suella Braverman using a rare “emergency” declaration to bypass the usual planning permission required for the military base to be used.
Maddie Harris, of the Humans for Rights Network, described “a very consistent negative experience had by men who have moved into Wethersfield”. She also raised concerns about whether the Home Office knew who was at Wethersfield, as one asylum seeker had recently told her that staff had no record of one of the residents being at the base.
Steve Smith, the CEO of Care4Calais, said that the transfer of some residents out of Wethersfield “shows the systemic disregard the Home Office has shown for their own accommodation policy.
“The policy is clear – no one who has survived torture, trafficking or modern slavery should be sent to the Wethersfield camp. That people who have experienced such horrors are being routinely sent [there] is shocking.”
He said it is clear that “the government has no effective screening process in place before sending asylum seekers to Wethersfield”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to meet our legal obligations and provide accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
“The accommodation provided meets all relevant housing and health and safety standards. If it emerges an asylum seeker is no longer suitable for the site, they will be moved to different accommodation.”
