Protest against the British government’s Illegal Migration Bill (ANSA)
By Lisa Zengarini
Mar 31 2023
JRS UK releases a report on the inhumane conditions of residents in the Napier Barracks a disused army base in Kent which as been converted into an asylum accommodation, urging the British Government to close it and to provide asylum seekers with safe and dignified accommodation.
As the British government’s controversial Illegal Migration Bill advances amid strong criticism from opposition parties and humanitarian organizations, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has published a scathing report that showcases what the future of asylum will look like in the UK if the bill is enacted.
The report, released on March 29, denounces the inhumane conditions experienced by asylum seekers held in quasi-detention at the Napier Barracks, an isolated disused army base in Kent which was temporarily converted into an asylum accommodation in autumn 2020. In September 2021, the British government deployed emergency powers to extend the site’s use for this purpose for another five years.
The move came despite significant criticism of facilities at the site, including a judgment from the High Court declaring them inadequate, and the Home Office guilty of employing unlawful practices. Also, according to the Cour, the use of emergency powers bypassed consultation with local community that such an extension would normally require.
An inhumane reality
Titled “Napier Barracks: the inhumane reality”, the JRS report is based on in-depth conversations held by its staff with people who had been at the camp in 2022, after the High Court judgment, when these criticalities were supposed to have been addressed.
The Jesuit Refugee Service ran an outreach service to Napier for two years from October 2020.
What emerged on the ground, says the summary, “was deeply troubling”: the site was bleak and rundown, the setting was securitised, the accommodation was crowded, taking a serious toll on residents’ mental health.
Key findings from those conversations include: people being routinely brought to the camp without their prior knowledge, causing them deep anxiety; harsh military and prison-like living conditions, with overcrowding and no privacy; serious failures in screening for vulnerabilities, namely survivors of both trafficking and torture who continued to be placed and remain there; barriers to accessing healthcare, and lack of legal advice. Also, safety issues have not been addressed after a serious fire broke out at the camp at the end of January 2021.
In light of these findings, the 35-pages report urges the UK government “to immediately and permanently close” the Napier Barracks, and abandon its plans for greater use of large-scale institutional asylum accommodation and, instead, to provide asylum seekers “with safe and dignified accommodation within British communities” which, it says “is better for the mental health of people seeking asylum, and for communities as a whole” and “supports integration”.
