DOCTORS providing vital medical aid in third-world countries have launched an operation to give primary healthcare to asylum-seekers in broken Britain.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors without Borders, and Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK revealed today that they have been assessing the physical and mental health needs of the men being held in a large-scale containment site in the former military barracks at Wethersfield in Essex since early September.
About 650 men are currently held at the site, but the number will be increased to 1,700 this year under government plans.
The groups found that while there is a medical centre providing primary healthcare on-site, the men they spoke to highlighted how their specific health needs are not being met.
The men said they feel isolated and alone and their mental health has worsened since they arrived at the base.
RAF Wethersfield is an extremely remote site and is heavily surveilled, with CCTV and security guards, and is surrounded by chain link fence and barbed wire.
MSF and DOTW warn that the men’s mental health will deteriorate the longer they stay there, with asylum claims remaining in limbo since the Illegal Migration Act became law and the number of people contained in the barracks continuing to rise.
MSF’s Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, who has been running the project at the site, said: “We know from our work around the world that harsh deterrence policies, such as holding people seeking sanctuary in mass containment sites, is a recipe for disaster which ultimately costs lives.
“This has sadly come to pass on Bibby Stockholm.
“Many of the men held in Wethersfield will likely have experienced violence, war, arbitrary detention and other trauma and will require tailored and specialised healthcare.
“Everyone who reaches the UK in search of sanctuary needs safe and dignified accommodation in the community, not in isolated military barracks.”
DOTW UK executive director Simon Tyler said: “A consequence of the broken asylum system is that we are now seeing people forced into containment sites that operate like open prisons.
“These camps are not a sustainable solution for anyone there stuck in limbo, or the local communities.
“But an efficient and safe process can exist to allow people to rebuild, be active, and look after their own health.”
The groups have said they will continue to provide care to those seeking safety in Britain as long as they see a need.
Migrant rights campaigners have expressed outrage that the groups have had to intervene.
Steve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais, which has launched a legal challenge against the use of RAF Wethersfield, said: “Despite a private company receiving a seven-figure contract to provide health services at Wethersfield, we have consistently been told by clients at the camp that they cannot access medical support, including in cases of serious mental health concerns.
“It is great that MSF have stepped in to provide appointments and support for our clients, but it is a shocking indictment of this government that they have had to do so.
“This de-facto prison camp is bad for people’s physical health, and a disaster for their mental health. It needs to be shut down.”
Migrant Voice director Nazek Ramadan said: “That an international aid agency, more usually seen in war zones than a rural village in Essex, is having to step in to provide support for people the Home Office is meant to be looking after shows the lack of genuine support which those seeking safety are provided with.
“Those seeking asylum need proper support and care, not to be placed in a disused camp and abandoned.”
Ms Ramadan called for a system which prioritises protection for asylum-seekers instead of one which “focuses on performative cruelty.”
Migrants’ Rights Network CEO Fizza Qureshi said the announcement “speaks to the horrific situations” asylum-seekers are forced to live in, adding: “Here is another example of the government abandoning asylum-seekers and willingly subjecting them to degrading circumstances whilst expecting others to fill the gaps.
“We must challenge the normalisation of dehumanising living conditions, and institutional punishment of people seeking safety.”
Freedom from Torture’s Kolbassia Haoussou, who was detained at the site when he first arrived in Britain, called the barracks an “open-prison camp.”
He said: “We know there are survivors of torture, just like me, being held in Wethersfield and denied the specialist support they so desperately need.
“For survivors of persecution and trauma, military sites like this can be profoundly retraumatising, worsening the despair, anxiety and depression so common within my community.”
Mr Haoussou said the continued detention of torture survivors and others “demonstrate the hostility this government feels towards refugees.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to meet our legal obligations and provide accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
“The accommodation provided meets all relevant housing and health and safety standards.
All residents at Wethersfield have access to medical support, including mental health support, and a 24/7 helpline provided by Migrant Help is available to raise any concerns.”
