In the early hours of Thursday, some 27 adult male migrants were moved to be housed at Crowborough Training Camp, in East Sussex, with many more expected to join while their claims for asylum in the UK are being processed.
Phillip and Christine Straker, who live adjacent to the Crowborough base are concerned about the new site and feel the Home Office has “lied” to them.
On Thursday, Mrs Straker told the Press Association: “You hear all these rumours and you think ‘well, could be true’, but now it’s happened we’re shellshocked.
“We knew it was going to happen because they just spent so much money down there and they’ve just taken us all for idiots, to be honest.
“We used to have half a dozen cars a day going down there and they’re now talking about 400 cars.”
Inside the migrant camp at the former Crowborough army camp (Image: Home Office)
She added: “The Home Office have just lied and not done anything they promised.”
The Government has vowed to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament and announced plans to use the Crowborough camp and Cameron Barracks in Inverness, Scotland as part of these efforts last year.
According to the Home Office, compared with other European countries, the UK received the fifth largest number of asylum seekers in the year ending March 2025 and the 17th largest intake when measured ‘per head of population’.
There have been a series of protests in Crowborough in response, and opposition from Wealden District Council (WDC) which is taking legal advice.
Locals only found out that the site was becoming operational last night, but Mr and Mrs Straker said they have been worried about the move since last autumn.
“We weren’t sleeping and it was really affecting our health,” said Mrs Straker.
Mr Straker said: “Relief is not really the right word but it helps that we know what we have got to deal with.”
They feel as though there was “no communication” between Government and the local community, and are worried about the “scale” of the operation.
Mrs Straker said: “We’ve had Afghan families in there. Well, they were fine. We’d wave to them, they’d wave back, all very respectful.
“We’ve got Ukrainian families in town, absolutely fine, but to compare that to what’s going to – well, what is happening now – is just absolutely ridiculous, there’s no comparison.”
Local residents are also upset that Army and RAF cadets who trained at the site will no longer be able to use it.
Kim Bailey, chairwoman of Crowborough Shield, wants to file an injunction to stop the site being used.
She said: “We feel that what the Home Office is doing here and what the Home Secretary is doing here is unlawful.
“There are many aspects to this case which we consider to be unlawful and we’re challenging it as a community.”
Ms Bailey insisted that the legal case was not about whether the community wanted to help asylum seekers.
“This is about the Home Secretary and the Home Office ramraiding an unsafe and reckless plan through a town with no consultation, no engagement, no risk assessments and just forcing it upon a community with absolutely no input from them,” she said.
WDC independent councillor Andrew Wilson has said his residents have voiced “varied” opposition and compared the Crowborough site to a prison.
Cllr Wilson said: “On one end you’ve got people who oppose the use of the camp on a safety basis and then there’s everything in between and at the other end people are saying it’s an unsuitable and inhumane place to put people.”
Police officers were seen near the camp this afternoon (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
Ann Salter, head of clinical services North West at Freedom from Torture, has said places like Crowborough risk “undermining the recovery” of people who’ve survived torture and called the approach “dangerous”.
“Survivors tell us that living in a former military site can feel unbearable because it so closely resembles the places where they were detained and abused,” she said.
Cllr Wilson was clear that he does not share concerns about the camp being inhumane, but admitted that “quite frankly it looks a little bit like a prison camp”.
Asked what he thought should be used for alternative accommodation, he said he wants the Government to “get control of our borders”.
“If it was 500 women down there I don’t think it would be a problem and we’d all be down there helping them. It’s just the fact it’s men and we don’t know who they are,” said Mrs Straker.
She acknowledged that the migrants “could be lovely” but said she will “not feel safe” going down to the bottom of her garden.
“I want to know who is living next door to me,” said Mrs Straker.
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