A report in December 2023 featured shocking testimonials claiming occupants were “suicidal”.Referring to feeling intimidated by the migrants, she added: “Sometimes I see large groups of 10 or 12 men walking through the village.”The papers also claimed the asylum seekers were subjected to “intense desperation and fear” and refugee charity Care4Calais launched a legal challenge, alleging asylum seekers were being housed at Wethersfield illegally.He told The Sun: “We are trapped here and our homes have been made worthless.The Government took over the former military training base as an emergency holding centre in 2023 as asylum claims in Britain hit an all-time high.This is because just meters away, 508 adult male migrants – aged between 18 and 65 – are housed at former airbase RAF Wethersfield.And if the migrant is guilty of a serious crime, they will forfeit their rights immediately.These men – many of whom arrived in the UK on small boats – are ferried on a taxpayer-funded fleet of minibuses, while residents claim they are trapped in their homes.The asylum accommodation site at Wethersfield was identified by the Home Office under the former government as a surplus military site that was suitable to accommodate asylum seekers. A Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain.And it is not just the ­politicians. Bear in mind that these are the ones we KNOW about.He said villagers have been given a number to call if they have any concerns, but he can never get through to anyone.One local who did not want to be named said: “There is real concern and worry about having such a large population of mainly young men – with nothing to do – in our midst.”Speaking last year, Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said the centre was having a “harmful and re-traumatising impact” on those housed there.The area, set in beautiful countryside, was once considered one of the safest in the country when the Government used it as a base for Ministry of Defence police.”Our volunteers have witnessed the almost daily damage caused to the people accommodated at the site as a result of the Government’s divisive policies of segregation.”They described it as “like a prison”, while another said: “Nothing about my life in the UK so far is about freedom. We risk our lives over and over again. This is no way to treat a human being. People are suffering.”Some people blame the aforementioned European Convention on Human Rights. And sure, it is outdated and needs to be rewritten from start to finish. Or we should pull out of it.He claims the “detention camp” staff have to be bussed in from elsewhere “because local people don’t want to work there”.Female residents also claim to feel scared by the sheer number of men now walking the streets – yet statistics show the crime rate has not increased since the migrant centre was opened.Never have the chances of getting your hands on our benefits been higher.But the reduction of migrant hotels across the country can’t come soon enough for those living in Wethersfield. Sheila Powdrill, who lives in nearby Finchingfield, said: “We put our house on the market just before it opened.DAMNING stats show just three per cent of small boat arrivals have been deported since 2018.Seven new asylum hotels have opened since Labour came to power, including the four-star Delta Marriott on the outskirts of Warwick, where the manager was forced to apologise to guests on TripAdvisor.He said: “There was never a pebble out of place then, and they had four clubs there, a bowling alley and a cinema.”This isn’t entirely Labour’s fault. Although they don’t seem to consider that the millions of illegal immigrants here are remotely shocking.And here’s the thing. I bet she wins the appeal. But she is challenging her deportation under Article Eight of the European ­Convention of Human Rights.He says: “It’s as if we don’t matter to the authorities – they only care about the migrants.”But these aren’t tour buses visiting the sleepy, countryside parish of Wethersfield in Braintree – they are shuttle buses taking hundreds of asylum seekers to the shops nearby up to three times a day.By Ryan Merrifield

But the proportion being granted fell from 67 per cent in 2023 to 47 per cent last year, in a sign processors are getting tougher.While the site is not a detention centre, and there have been no reports of crimes by the men housed here, the Home Office was accused of using the airfield as an “open-prison camp”.”The house over the road has been for sale for a while after the woman who lived there died,” he said.A spokesperson for the Government department confirmed to The Sun it is increasing capacity at Wethersfield in the short term as part of an effort to reduce the use of taxpayers’ money on “expensive asylum hotels”. Jeff lives next door to his parents, Alan and Melody, just yards from the camp fence.”No one wants to live next door to a prison establishment. The men there are free to come and go and wander around the village – and they even get taxis into local towns.” They include examples of why migrants who have been convicted of crimes have been allowed to stay in this country.His mother, Melody, said: “We have alarms and cameras to try and make us safer.”IT’S a great time to be alive – if you’re an asylum seeker or foreign criminal.Similarly, The Runnymede Trust shared an account of an engineering student from Sudan who was a resident at the site.”The location of the base is remote, the buildings are in a state of disrepair, and as a former military base the environment is likely to retraumatise refugees who have been imprisoned in brutal military facilities in their home countries.”Jeff Temperley, a 54-year-old builder who lives next to the centre, says: “It’s not safe for children to go for a walk round here…we are all worried about these men wandering around unsupervised and free to do what they want.

A Government spokesman told the Sun they had a statutory obligation to provide asylum seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, with accommodation, but admitted that in recent years, the costs of doing so have reached “unsustainable levels”.”That has inevitably meant difficult choices elsewhere in the short term, including increasing capacity at Wethersfield, but we are determined to reduce pressure throughout the system over time. He said there are calls for the centre, around a mile-and-a-half down narrow lanes from the village itself, to be “closed completely”.Wethersfield also has no pubs or shops, with the taxis taking the refugees to nearby towns at taxpayers’ expense – something locals find frustrating when they struggle to get around easily.