The irresponsibility and incompetence of the government’s asylum policy has had plenty of coverage in the local and national media. In our region, the most egregious example is the use of the old Wethersfield RAF base on the Essex/Suffolk border to house large numbers of single young men. We have previously covered the way local people have resisted attempts by the far right to hijack protests about the siting of this facility in an isolated small rural community. There are now over 500 people housed there, and of the nearly 1000 people sent there since last July, 23 absconded and 15 children, wrongly classed as adults, were removed for their own protection. Now the government’s own inspector of Borders and Immigration has written to the Minister, expressing grave concern about the camp.
Although they are technically not imprisoned, the residents are just stranded there, with little support, few facilities and little hope of leaving in the near future. As we know, when their claims are eventually processed, three quarters of them will be accepted as genuine refugees, and it will be impossible to deport most of the remainder. So most of these young men will be living among us for decades to come. Exactly how will the inhumane treatment they are getting now make them more constructive and well-intentioned citizens? Most have already had traumatic experiences before they came here, in their countries of origin, or on the long journey (or both). Their mental health is not just a matter of justice and humanity but of our own self-interest.
As the proportion of retired people in the UK rises, the labour market needs a lot more fit young people, keen and trained to fill gaps in the labour market. These people could make a huge contribution, but keeping them isolated from any community without education or training, and with nothing constructive to do, is destroying their potential; their hopes for the future; and any faith they might have had that Britain is a caring civilised country.
Wethersfield is building a population of damaged and disaffected young men. In the short term, as the Inspector makes clear, we risk serious violence and suicide at the camp itself. And when they finally leave, Wethersfield, like our failing prison system, will have prepared them to join the growing criminal underclass. Is that really what we want?
Here is the Inspector’s letter:
‘Care for Calais’, whose Freedom of Information request uncovered the inspector’s letter,
are raising funds for a legal challenge to the government’s use of Wethersfield
