Charities condemn ‘arrogant’ plans to house asylum seekers at former military sites

Temporary units that are housing asylum seekers at the Wethersfield base in Essex. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Temporary units that are housing asylum seekers at the Wethersfield base in Essex. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Charities condemn ‘arrogant’ plans to house asylum seekers at former military sites Planning permission has been sought for three additional military sites Home Office plans to use three more former military sites to house thousands of asylum seekers have been condemned as “arrogant”, “costly” and “a political fix” by refugee charities and local stakeholders. Planning permission is being sought to build “basic” accommodation at MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, a statement said. These new sites could house 3,750 claimants, the government has claimed. Ministers hope to extend the use of other ex-military sites already housing claimants, including Crowborough in East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027, a statement said. Capacity at Wethersfield is to be increased by 400 to 1,200 men, the Home Office said. The move has been condemned for costing more than placing claimants in hotels and repeating the mistakes of the last government, which faced legal challenges over the use of barracks to house asylum seekers. Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “As the government’s own spending watchdog has said, barracks actually cost more money overall than hotels. We know from experience they also isolate people from local communities and essential services, as they are often miles away from the nearest towns, so people who have fled war and persecution cannot find any security or stability while they apply for asylum,” he said. Politicians in Bicester have questioned why the government would want to build asylum accommodation there, given that the last attempt to do so in 2001 was halted by protests, planning delays and excessive costs . Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester and Woodstock, said the latest Home Office proposal “looked like a political fix” and would not work. “Ministers say they are closing asylum hotels, but they appear to be replacing one costly and unsuitable model with another, without giving local communities the answers they deserve,” he said. Nicola David, a member of the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group, which fought plans to accommodate asylum seekers on the base when the previous government proposed this in 2022, said the announcement was “a real gut punch”. “We fought hard against these proposals – and we won, proving that this was the ‘wrong plan, wrong place’. “It’s still wrong. There’s nothing good about warehousing a large number of asylum seekers in a tiny remote village,” she said. Kim Bailey, of Crowborough Shield CIC, which has mounted a legal challenge against the Home Office’s use of Crowborough to accommodate asylum seekers, said: “The government