Pressure on Cooper to close 'prison-like' asylum camp

More than 70 refugee charities and human rights organisations have called on Yvette Cooper to shut a “prison-like” former RAF base housing asylum seekers in Essex.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Just weeks after the High Court found the home secretary acted unlawfully in housing three asylum seekers at the facility, the campaigners have piled pressure on Ms Cooper to shut the “unsafe and unsuitable” site for good.

Sir Keir Starmer this month declined to set a date for when the former RAF station will be shuttered, despite pledging to close it during the general election. And following the closure of the Bibby Stockholm barge, as well as the announced closure date of the RAF Napier asylum camp, the coalition of organisations called the continuation of Wethersfield “ever more indefensible”.

In a letter coordinated by the charity Asylum Matters, they said: “People seeking asylum should be housed in communities, not camps. Placing people seeking protection in camp accommodation on ex-military sites is inhumane, and causes profound and long-lasting additional trauma to people who have already experienced conflict, oppression, abuse, torture and trafficking.