Dancing and fighting...life of migrants in former RAF camp

MIGRANTS partying and fighting inside an old military base “lay bare the reality behind our asylum system”, ministers have been told.

- MICHAEL KNOWLES Home Affairs Editor

Groups of male refugees were filmed singing and dancing in a common room complete with a disco ball and glittering lights at RAF Wethersfield in Essex.

Music blares from a nearby speaker as security guards sit idly by, videoing the frivolities.

Another clip shows chaotic scenes, with a migrant vaulting a dividing wall to confront someone.

He then turns back to pick up a plastic tray, before being held back as he attempts to hit a person believed to be a staff member.

The video has emerged just 24 hours after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans for the toughest asylum crackdown in years.

The footage is believed to have been filmed just before Labour took power in July last year but has only just surfaced.

Home Office sources said it would not have provided the music equipment and suggested the videos were taken before the general election.

But Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said: "These videos lay bare the reality behind our asylum system.

"While open border advocates present it as helping the world's needy, in reality, the taxpayer is being forced to pay exorbitant amounts to fund parties for young men who have broken into our country.

"The violence on display is further proof, if it were needed, that we are dealing with men who are, in some cases, volatile and a potential danger to members of the public.