{"id":259192,"date":"2025-03-14T17:46:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/wethersfield-asylum-seekers-housed-unlawfully-at-air-base\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T17:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:46:57","slug":"wethersfield-asylum-seekers-housed-unlawfully-at-air-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/wethersfield-asylum-seekers-housed-unlawfully-at-air-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Wethersfield asylum seekers housed ‘unlawfully’ at air base"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wethersfield<\/div>


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Aimee Dexter<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Essex<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

MDP Wethersfield, which is being used as an asylum centre, has a capacity for 580 people <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A High Court judge has found former Home Secretary Suella Braverman acted unlawfully in accommodating three asylum seekers at a former RAF base.<\/p>\n

The men – who were at MDP Wethersfield in Essex between July 2023 and February 2024 – argued they were living in “prison-like” conditions.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Timothy Mould said the government failed to take into account the three claimants’ experiences of torture, mental health conditions and disabilities.<\/p>\n

He was also told the asylum centre was “seriously inadequate”, with residents queuing for food and experiencing outbreaks of scabies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Justice Mould ruled that Braverman was in breach of her duties under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.<\/p>\n

The government failed to assess the “equalities implications” of housing them at Wethersfield, he said.<\/p>\n

“That is a most serious and inexplicable omission,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It amounts to the clearest failure on the part of the defendant to fulfil the public sector equality duty.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Migrants were first moved into buildings at MDP Wethersfield in July 2023<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The first claimant, referred to at the High Court as TG, was a victim of trafficking and serious physical violence, had a disability and had post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.<\/p>\n

The other two – named MN and HAA – were also victims of torture and trafficking.<\/p>\n

HAA struggled staying in shared rooms at a large occupancy site and was a “potentially vulnerable individual”.<\/p>\n

A claim made by a fourth asylum seeker, who was also an ex-resident at MDP Wethersfield, was dismissed by the judge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MousumiMousumi Bakshi\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Residents living near Wethersfield have protested the use of it as an asylum centre, including in July 2023<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The then-Conservative government announced plans to house migrants at Wethersfield near Braintree, as well as RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, in March 2023.<\/p>\n

Migrants were moved into Wethersfield in July 2023 and there were initial plans to accommodate 1,700 people there.<\/p>\n

Lawyers acting for the claimants said their clients “each suffered a serious decline in their mental health”.<\/p>\n

In a statement to media, they said: “[The breaches] illustrate that the home secretary is not only required to have a system capable of operating lawfully, she must act lawfully in each individual case.”<\/p>\n

Emily Soothill, from law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, said victims of torture and trafficking should not be housed at Wethersfield.<\/p>\n

“We urge [current Home Secretary] Yvette Cooper to reflect on this judgment, end the use of large sites and close Wethersfield once and for all,” said Ms Soothill.<\/p>\n

Maddie Harris of Humans For Rights Network said: “Placing people in camp accommodation on ex-military sites is an inhumane way to treat those seeking protection.”<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted the Home Office and Suella Braverman’s office for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aimee Dexter BBC News, Essex PA Media MDP Wethersfield, which is being used as an asylum centre, has a capacity for 580 people A High Court judge has found former Home Secretary Suella Braverman acted unlawfully in accommodating three asylum seekers at a former RAF base. The men – who were at MDP Wethersfield in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[721,55,722,54147,4164,104515,199985],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259194,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259192\/revisions\/259194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}