Home Office has “segregated” asylum seekers at airfield, letter before claim argues
The Home Office is facing a fresh legal challenge over housing asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield after a charity claimed conditions on the site amount to "detention" and that the asylum seekers have been segregated from the British population.
Lawyers representing refugee charity Care4Calais have sent a pre-action protocol letter claiming the Home Office is in breach of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and the Asylum Support Regulations and that the site fails to comply with the Government's own suitability criteria for asylum seeker accommodation.
The claimant described the site, which is about nine miles from the nearest town of Braintree, as being “ringed” by barbed wire fences with a guarded entrance and exit.
The "prison-like" conditions are also worsened by a "limited private hire bus provision," it claimed.
"We believe this amounts to detention and is out of the scope of the Home Secretary’s sections 95 and 96 obligations [under the 1999 Act]," the group said in a statement on their CrowdJustice page.
In addition, the site's "significant distance" from the British population or any community hub has made it impossible for residents to "take part in British society or even interact with a local community," the group added.
"All the residents of the site share the protected characteristic of being an asylum seeker, all of whom are from ethnic minority backgrounds and are non-UK nationals.
"It is on this basis that the Government has segregated them from the wider UK community. Again, the Home Secretary does not encompass the power to enact this type of segregation, by nationality, in fulfilling the statutory duties conveyed to her by Parliament through the [1999 Act]."
The group also claimed that the Government has failed to adopt an "effective, lawful and rational policy" for identifying those unsuitable for accommodation at Wethersfield, specifically those that have experienced torture or modern slavery.
The group claims that people who have survived torture, modern slavery or who suffer from serious mental health concerns have been sent to the airfield, despite the Government's suitability criteria stating this should not happen.
The charity has instructed the Public Law Team at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Alex Goodman KC and Miranda Butler of Landmark Chambers have been appointed as counsel.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Despite the number of people arriving in the UK reaching record levels, we continue to provide accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute to meet our legal obligation.
“Accommodation offered to asylum seekers, on a no choice basis, meets our legal and contractual requirements and they are free to come and go.”
The Government's usage of ex-military sites to accommodate asylum seekers is to be challenged in a separate judicial review hearing due to begin today (31 October), which is being brought by West Lindsey District Council, along with Braintree District Council and a resident close to RAF Wethersfield.
Adam Carey
