Asylum seekers accommodated at a controversial military base in East Sussex have been subjected to inadequate welfare checks, and torture survivors may have been placed there unlawfully, a new undercover documentary for ITV has revealed.
Mass accommodation sites are central to the government’s plan to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. For the documentary Inside The Asylum Camp, ITV’s undercover reporter got a job as a welfare officer at Crowborough and covertly filmed inside the former military training camp. The documentary claims that poor screening and welfare checks are having serious consequences for some of the asylum seekers.
This May, the high court ruled that a Home Office policy change forcing torture survivors to share rooms was unlawful. The accommodation at Crowborough is in large dormitories.
The Home Office’s decision to accommodate asylum seekers on two former military sites – Crowborough, and Wethersfield in Essex – has triggered opposition from local residents. Plans to use three other sites – Bicester, Barnham and Linton-on-Ouse – have caused a similar outcry, mostly around fears about asylum seekers causing a rise in violent crime. However, very low levels of even minor crimes have been recorded by police at Wethersfield and Crowborough among asylum seekers at the two camps.
The Crowborough site is run by Clearsprings Ready Homes. According to its latest accounts, it is generating millions of pounds in income every day from its asylum accommodation contracts. Its boss, Graham King, has become the first asylum accommodation billionaire.
The documentary footage shows that, although two comprehensive welfare checks are supposed to be carried out each month by Clearsprings welfare officers, some staff appear to admit cutting corners and not asking all the questions they are required to ask of asylum seekers. On one occasion a welfare officer is filmed telling the undercover reporter “you don’t need to go in too deep”.
Staff appear to admit to falling behind on the ۱,۰۰۰ welfare checks they are supposed to carry out each month saying: “We’re so fucked.”
Concerns about an asylum seeker can be flagged on their file. A welfare officer is filmed telling the undercover reporter: “Those flags mean nothing” and that “nobody ever looks at them again”. When asked by the undercover reporter if some asylum seekers fall through the net due to brief welfare checks carried out, the welfare officer replies: “Oh, absolutely.”
The undercover reporter says he has identified four or five survivors of torture who should not have been sent to the military camp.
Louise Calvey, the executive director of the charity Asylum Matters, raised concerns about the findings of the undercover documentary. Her organisation has a campaign to accommodate asylum seekers in communities not camps. “The reports of torture survivors being accommodated on military barracks are appalling,” she said. “Brave survivors endure appalling experiences arriving to a country where they thought they’d be safe – a supposed civilised country, placing them in camps without the support they desperately need.
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“People being held in isolation for prolonged periods of time without access to sufficient water demonstrate just how far we have fallen as a country. That government contractors can fail so resoundingly in their duty of care to people seeking safety in our country demonstrates how much our system dehumanises refugees.”
Calvey said the government needed to urgently review its use of the camps, which she described as “a choice to punish people for having the audacity to exercise their lawful right to seek asylum here”.
Clearsprings has been approached for comment. A spokesperson for the Home Office said it would “investigate any allegations thoroughly”, adding: “Welfare checks are a vital tool to assess wellbeing for all individuals on site, including those in medical isolation. We expect the highest standards from our staff and contractors and frequently assess the delivery of these to ensure compliance with contractual requirements.”
