Photos and videos from the former military base Wethersfield show rodents and broken toilets
Footage captured at an ex-RAF base housing hundreds of asylum seekers shows giant rats, leaking toilets and flooded hallways.
Video and photos reveal squalid conditions at MDP Wethersfield in Essex, which accommodates up to 1,245 male migrants who arrived in the UK on small boats.
Weathersfield is the main military base the Government uses to house small boat migrants.
The footage shows rats crawling under portacabins, with overflowing urinals leaking onto toilet floors at the former Ministry of Defence site.
New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.
Toilets are blocked up and ripped from the walls, a broken washing machine is seen pouring water onto the floor while mounds of rubbish are seen in bedrooms and storerooms.
Empty beer cans and bottles are seen in piles at the facility despite the Government insisting Wethersfield, which is run by Clearsprings Ready Homes on behalf of the Home Office, is a strict “no alcohol zone” where they state “we’ll continue to ensure that the no alcohol rule is enforced”.
It comes after a new report found asylum seekers are stuck in overcrowded conditions with rodent outbreaks inside some hotels in the South of England.
A security guard who has worked at Wethersfield said there were “rats as big as cats” with the problem at the site getting worse after capacity at the base was increased to 1,240 earlier this year.
Footage shows rats scurrying under portacabins at the Wethersfield site
Rubbish was piled up in rooms at the former military camp, which has capacity to house around 1,200 male migrants
Leaking urinals at the base
They told The i Paper: “They are literally coming into your buildings. They’re in the rafters.
“Every day as you’re walking from one location to another, they’re running across you. They were huge.
“You’d see rats in rubbish bins that gave birth in there. We got so used to that it just became the norm.”
Another source said: “A lot of these rats, most of them, are down underneath the prefabs, because there’s space there to sit under.
“They live under the portacabins. It’s pretty bad. Some of them are pretty big, as big as a coke bottle.
“It’s not healthy for anyone. If there’s food on the floor, these rats are scavengers and they are going to pick up whatever they can get.”
At least three guards were dismissed from the site after a mass walkout last month.
Empty beer cans and bottles were pictured despite the Home Office insisting Wethersfield is a strict ‘no alcohol zone’
Toilets had been broken or were blocked up at the former RAF airbase
Before last year’s general election, Sir Keir Starmer said MDP Wethersfield, needed to close.
But as well as extending the use of Wethersfield, the Government is now increasing the number of military bases to house asylum seekers in a bid to slash the cost of hotel accommodation.
A Home Affairs Committee report earlier this year found said costs from hotel contracts from 2019-2029 will rise from £4.5bn to £15.3bn
In order to fulfill the goal of closing asylum hotels by 2029, military sites will now be used to house migrants.
Two further military bases, Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex, and Cameron Barracks in Inverness, are due to house another 900 asylum seekers from this month.
Ministers say migrants could be housed in temporary prefabricated buildings such as those installed at Wethersfield.
But the footage raises further questions about conditions at ex-military bases like Wethersfield, which has been dogged with controversy since opening as accommodation for migrants in 2023.
Flooding in one of the hallways at the base
A broken washing machine spills onto the floor
In February, the numbers that could be housed at the base increased from 580 to 800, before the current cap of 1,245 was confirmed in July.
In 2023, migrants protested after outbreaks of scabies, with medics warning of concerns over suicidal thoughts and severe psychological distress.
Fights have also broken out among those housed there, many of whom have travelled from war-torn regions.
Healthcare specialists have warned residents who endured torture, trafficking and mental health problems shouldn’t be held at Wethersfield.
The Helen Bamber Foundation has described the base as as “open prison camp” that has caused “irreparable and profound harm”.
Last month, a trade dispute erupted between security contractors and Clearsprings Ready Homes, with staff complaining about “disgusting” conditions.
James Cleverly, the ex-Tory Home Secretary and Braintree MP, called for the Wethersfield site to he be shut down “now – before it gets even worse”.
“Whilst I was Home Secretary, numbers at Wethersfield were capped to keep order and safety and protect our community,” he told The i Paper.
“Labour tore up those limits, the number of asylum seekers residing at Wethersfield has doubled and chaos has followed.
“This Labour Government has lost control of our borders and Wethersfield is overflowing.”
In her spending review, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said stopping taxpayer-funded hotels by 2029 would save £1bn.
The Government has now closed the Bibby Stockholm barge, and scrapped plans to use another ex-RAF base, Scampton in Lincolnshire as sites to hold thousands of asylum seekers.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All sites comply with safety, security, health and wellbeing standards. Procedures are in place to fix maintenance and safety issues quickly.”
Clearsprings was contacted for comment.