'A lot of people are going crazy, it is mental torture'

Migrants housed at Wethersfield in Essex describe the fights, isolation and suicide attempts inside the 'prison-like' centre

- HOLLY BANCROFT

For Amir, a refugee living in Home Office-funded accommodation, seeing people attempt suicide has become almost routine. He has been in Wethersfield, a former RAF base being used to house asylum seekers, for four months. In that time, he estimated he has seen 10 people try to take their own lives.

“Some have tried to jump off the buildings, others try to hang themselves in the rooms, one tried to hurt himself in the kitchen, and one took too many pills,” he told The Independent in a cafe in Braintree – a town that’s a short bus ride from the Essex site.

He described witnessing one man, who had been in an Iranian prison for several years, committing a horrifying act of self-harm and then going on hunger strike. The man was transferred out of Wethersfield after four days, he said.

Amir is one of around 580 migrants who are being housed at the 80-year-old site, where asylum seekers can be held for six-nine months. Legal action is currently being brought against the government by charities who say the “prison-like” camp is a “de facto detention centre”.

Failures in vetting have seen vulnerable people sent to the site, with hundreds getting transferred out after the Home Office admitted it was unsuitable. However, charities say the site is so bad that no one should be housed there.

Wethersfield consists of two main accommodation blocks, one that sleeps three people to a room and the other six to a room. Residents have some facilities, like a small gym, televisions in communal areas and a football field, but many struggle to deal with days of boredom at the site.

The former inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal, wrote to ministers in February, saying a lack of “purposeful” activity was “likely to have a deleterious impact on residents’ mental health” and a “heightened risk of disorder”.