Police officers outside Crowborough Training Camp, East Sussex (Image: PA)
Shabana Mahmood has vowed to open “site after site” to house migrants despite fury erupting over asylum seekers moving into an Army training camp. Some 27 small boat arrivals were bussed into the Crowborough Training Camp in the early hours of Thursday morning despite local opposition.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned the site, which will be home to 540 migrants, was previously used to train Army and RAF cadets, police officers and firefighters. He said illegal immigrants “pose a threat to local communities up and down the country”, adding “this is another day of shame” for Labour.
But Home Secretary Ms Mahmood, who is facing the possibility of a legal challenge from Wealdon District Council, vowed to ram through more migrant accommodation on “large sites” as part of the Government’s bid to close asylum hotels. And an influential group of MPs warned that the Home Office is “yet to demonstrate it has a credible plan” to close asylum hotels.
Kim Bailey, chair of Crowborough Shield, a residents association group, said: “There’s been no engagement here. The Home Office are trying to use emergency powers to secretly push through an unsafe decision. It’s reckless. This isn’t a self-contained Army barracks. They have had to evict thousands of cadets to be able to make this decision. The asylum seekers themselves, they don’t want to be in a place like this.”
Asked about Labour’s plan to keep opening up similar sites, Ms Bailey said: “It’s shameful. I saw in her statement that she said ‘we’re going to open site after site’. It almost felt like she’s boasting and bragging about this. That’s disgusting because what she’s saying is she is going to disrupt community after community without a care in the World, without engaging with you and we’re just going to ram it through.
“It’s not reducing costs, it’s actually more expensive, and the impact on communities is greater.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is another day of shame for the Labour government.
“This site was used to train 6,000 army and RAF cadets each year as well as for police and fire training. They have all now been kicked out to accommodate illegal immigrants instead. Illegal immigrants are costing £4 billion a year to house and they pose a threat to local communities up and down the country.
Crowborough Training Camp, East Sussex (Image: PA)
“We have seen hundreds of crimes committed by illegal immigrants in asylum accommodation, including many rapes, sexual assaults and even murder. Now the women and children of Crowborough will be exposed to those risks too.”
Reform UK Lee Anderson MP said: “Open-borders Starmer has bussed the latest group of illegal migrants into a small English town, putting the safety of its residents seriously at risk.
“Crowborough is a key training facility for thousands of Army Cadets who will now be deprived of using the site. Reform UK will detain and deport every single person that has arrived in the UK illegally.”
More than 500 migrants will eventually be held in Crowborough. The Home Office insists “robust safety and public‑protection safeguards are in place”, with 24/7 security.
A 16-seater coach, with a police escort, was driven onto the camp in persistent rain just before 3.30am today.
Sources said they will only be housed there for up to three months while their asylum claims are processed.
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to close every migrant hotel by 2029, with so-called large sites a key part of Labour’s plan to do so.
But residents claim the area around Crowborough barracks lacks the infrastructure and facilities to cope with an influx of hundreds of male migrants, who will be free to come and go from the base.
Some 36,273 are staying in taxpayer-funded hotel rooms, a 13% rise compared to June’s figure of 32,041, while 66,232 are living in communities across Britain.
Former military sites are a crucial part of Labour’s plan to close the remaining 197 asylum hotels.
Chair of the Home Affairs Committee Dame Karen Bradley said: “It is welcome that the Home Office has finally started to get a grip on the asylum accommodation contracts, including by enhancing its contract management capacity and recouping excess profits made by providers.
“However, the department still has yet to demonstrate it has a credible plan for getting out of asylum hotels, and delivering suitable alternative accommodation in a way which takes into account the impact on local areas.
“The Home Office has also not taken on board our recommendations for strengthening its approach to safeguarding, despite the serious concerns we heard during our inquiry.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Illegal migration has been placing immense pressure on communities. That is why we are removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britain, closing asylum hotels that are blighting communities. Crowborough is just the start. I will bring forward site after site until every asylum hotel is closed and returned to local communities. I will not rest until order and control to our borders is restored.”
Phill Straker, 69, whose home backs on to the Crowborough Training Camp, fears migrants will be able to just walk in and out of his garden. He said: “They can just wander though, I’m very concerned. We back right onto it – now we’ve got years of potential access from strangers. There’s been a huge problem with lack of engagement. Nobody has explained anything to us. How dare they?
“The Home Office throughout the entire process has been awful. They’ve been disingenuous.”
Crowborough resident Karen Creed added: “We’ve all been hoodwinked by the Home Office. It makes me cross that I, as a female, have to be worried for my safety.”
Andrew Tuck, 75, who has lived in Crowborough for 38 years, said: “Personally I think the Government needs to sit up and take responsibility for what they should be doing in this country, which is protecting the residents of this country. We should come first.
“The Home Office have completely ignored us. Crowborough is just the start, they are ignoring the people in this country who work, pay their taxes and keep everything going. They’re running roughshod over us. This has just been dumped on us.”