The Government has been urged to end the “bleak” and “grim” conditions faced by asylum seekers living in former military barracks during the icy cold weather.
Migrants have had to cope with outside toilets and showers, heating problems, as well rats, leaking toilets and flooded halls after being relocated to some military barracks.
Some may even have to sleep on the streets during the cold snap, charities have warned after the Government cut the amount of time granted to them to sort out accommodation, benefits and look for a job after being granted refugee status.
Pressure on Labour to end the use of former barracks follows outrage over plans to move migrants to two more military sites in Sussex and the Highlands in the weeks ahead.
Conditions at the former RAF Wethersfield site in Essex are so bad that more than 50 security staff quit before Christmas, The i Paper has learnt.
Before winning power, Keir Starmer had promised to shut MDP Wethersfield and called the use of ex-military sites for asylum housing “unsustainable”.
But his Government has expanded the number of people housed at the site from 800 to 1,245. It also now plans to open up Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex to house another 900 people.
Conditions ‘more grim in the winter’
The i Paper revealed in November that the asylum seekers housed at Wethersfield were having to cope with “rats as big as cats” and leaking toilets.
Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, a charity which works with asylum seekers living at site near Braintree, said some of the men were living in grim conditions in Portakabins.
Their showers and toilets are also in separate blocks outside, said Mr Smith. “So some people are having to go outside in the cold or rain, which is not ideal in the winter,” he added.
“Conditions are grim all year round, but they become a bit more grim in the winter,” he added. “We have heard of heating not working at times over recent years.”
Rats and broken toilets at Wethersfield where up to 1,200 asylum seekers are housedSmith said the photos of rats and other problems tally with what they have heard from asylum seekers at the site near Braintree.
“We have seen these things in all of the former military camps, which are so badly degraded. The cost of proper upgrades to the military sites would be huge. They are not appropriate places.”
Daniel Garnham, general secretary of the Security Industry Federation (SIF), said temporary staff with little or no experience were being used at Wethersfield after a mass exodus of professionals.
He told The i Paper that just over 50 of the 60 self-employed security staff who had been working Wethersfield have quit since the start of November.
It follows a dispute over pay and “disgusting” conditions with Clearsprings Ready Homes, the private contractor which manages the site.
“The conditions have been terrible – just not good enough,” said Garnham. “They haven’t changed over the last month or so for the staff remaining there. The cold winter weather won’t make the conditions any easier, or the job of the staff there any easier.”
Garnham questioned the imminent use of other ex-military barracks. “A lot of these places are old and decrepit,” he said. “They are going to be difficult to manage from a health and safety perspective.”
Why former barracks are ‘grim and isolating’
The former Napier military barracks near Folkstone in Kent, which campaigners had called “squalid”, was housing around 300 asylum seekers at its peak.
But the Government has been winding down the site in recent months, and the last migrants were moved out before Christmas into wider “dispersal” accommodation in the community.
Sally Hough was the director of Napier Drop-In Centre – a charity which had helped support migrants staying at the barracks before its closure in December.
“Winter is particularly bleak in these dilapidated barracks cut off from community,” she said. “Napier was quite isolated, so most people wouldn’t leave the site in the very cold weather.”
Napier Barracks in Folkestone has now closed as asylum accommodation (Photo: Ben Stansall / AFP)Hough said Napier’s Victorian buildings were “poorly maintained” and the heating would “break down” from time to time.
“People also had outside shower blocks in Portakabins. If people were using toilets inside, you would have to use the toilets outside in the shower blocks at night in the freezing cold.”
Hough said it was “depressing that Labour opposed old military barracks like this when in opposition, but now they think it’s a solution”.
She added: “The conditions are always going to be grim and isolating. People need to be housed in communities, not camps.”
The decision to put asylum seekers military sites in Crowborough and Inverness has seen howls of opposition from anti-asylum protesters, anti-racism activists, charities, local councillors and MPs.
“The camps fuel division because there is no consultation with communities when the sites open,” said Hough. “There is one thing both sides agree on – that we don’t want asylum seekers housed at these ex-military sites where there is insufficient infrastructure to support people.”
More refugees at risk rough sleeping in the cold
A recent report by the Refugee & Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL) charity found that asylum seekers were also facing “squalid” conditions inside hotels – overcrowding, bad food, mice, rats and mould.
RAMFEL campaigners said they were not aware of any problems with heating at the asylum hotels in the area during the cold weather this winter.
However, the charity said the Government’s decision to halve the “move on” period for refugees told to leave hotels from 56 days to 28 days was increasing the risk of rough sleeping in the cold.
Charities have warned refugees face an increased risk of homelessness (Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)Asylum seekers granted refugee status now only have four weeks to look for work, sort out their benefits and find somewhere to stay before they are evicted from hotels.
Nick Beales, head of campaigning at RAMFEL, said many people were having to declare themselves homeless to the nearest council.
“It’s just not enough time,” he said. “It puts huge pressure on local authorities who are bearing the brunt of managing this avoidable rough sleeping and having to try to find emergency accommodation. Some are going into bedsits, B&Bs, or going back into hotels.”
Isabelle Pereira, caseworker at RAMFEL, said: “Sadly we are seeing some people having to sleep rough on the streets, whether in doorways or in groups in parks.”
“We hope some have been able to be in shelters during the coldest weather, but some may still be outside in the cold.”
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A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government will close every asylum hotel and work is well underway, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.
“The Wethersfield site provides functional accommodation for asylum seekers and is designed to be as self-sufficient as possible while meeting all relevant housing and health and safety standards.”
Clearsprings Ready Homes have been contacted for comment.
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