SEVERAL asylum-seekers have set themselves on fire at the controversial MDP Wethersfield asylum centre in north Essex, charities reveal today.
Staff prevent suicides with fire extinguishers while gunshots are heard amid almost nightly fighting at the Home Office’s largest refugee accommodation site, they claim.
The former RAF base opened in July and houses several hundred men.
They have suffered “irreparable and profound harm” while kept in an “open-prison camp,” the Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) and Humans for Rights Network (HFRN) warned.
The accounts were shared after HFRN conducted casework with more than 140 individuals and HBF’s clinicians detailed assessments made after the camp had opened.
HRRN director Maddie Harris said: “Wethersfield is unsafe for both the mental and physical health of the men held there and must be closed with immediate effect.
“It is our belief that it is only a matter of time before someone dies.”
HBF director of policy Kamena Dorling rubbished claims that the “horrific camps on former military sites are necessary.”
One Wethersfield resident said being there was “the hardest part” after his fleeing his country via Libya.
“People screaming at night, gunshots can be heard,” he said.
“When someone wakes up screaming, I don’t know what to do. I came through Libya, this place is no different.”
Another man from Iran said he tried to kill himself over the conditions in the camp.
He said: “Once I tried to hang myself and once there was a group of us, six or seven people, who tried to set ourselves on fire.
“They didn’t let us in the camp and extinguished the fire, I had a part of my T-shirt burnt, many others as well, it has affected our mental health in a very bad way.
“We were told you only stay for two weeks here. It was a lie, it’s been two months, nothing [has] happened.”
Refugee charity Care4Calais has launched a legal challenge in the High Court against Home Secretary James Cleverly’s use of Wethersfield – in his constituency – for asylum accommodation.
Its submission includes a raft of emails detailing safeguarding concerns being unaddressed by authorities.
It comes after a resident in the Bibby Stockholm asylum accomodation barge in Dorset is believed to have killed himself this week.
Care4Calais chief executive Steve Smith said: “The government’s accommodation policy is clear. Military barracks and floating barges are not appropriate accommodation for anyone who has experienced torture, modern slavery or who has severe mental health concerns.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to meet our legal obligations and provide accommodation for asylum-seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
“Accommodation offered to asylum-seekers, on a no choice basis, meets our legal and contractual requirements and people are free to come and go.”
