It is five long months since the East Sussex town of Crowborough first learned that its local army training camp — which had previously been used by cadets from the three forces — was to be requisitioned by the Home Office to house 540 male illegal migrants. The Home Office and Wealden District Council had of course known much longer than this but, as is the way, decided not to share the information with those who would be most affected i.e. Crowborough residents.
Since then the town’s and its representatives’ opposition to the plan has passed through various phases — including a legal initiative which involved a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. The aim was to gain a Judicial Review re the use of the camp. This was not granted on the basis that Crowborough Shield’s claim had been presented prematurely: that is once news emerged of the use of the camp and there was clear evidence that it was being readied. The fact that its usual occupants — local cadets — had been ousted provided further concrete evidence.
During the period in which the site was being prepared — in plain sight — the Home Office was asked repeatedly for their written confirmation that the camp would indeed be used and from what date. Such requests from various agents, including the local MP Nusrat Ghani, were ignored and the HO either didn’t respond or stated repeatedly that no decision had been made. That is, until 21 January when the HO advised that the first residents would be placed in the camp the next day — 22 January. The first group of migrants were bussed into the camp in the middle of the night. It was therefore all too clear that the HO had deliberately obfuscated and claimed no decision had been made when this was blatantly not so. As such the legal challenge was adjudged to have been premature and invalid.
As the presiding KC Mr Justice Mould remarked, ‘candour has not been discharged’. Presumably such lack of candour was a deliberate ploy on the part of the Home Office.
All the legal action was funded by local people and an additional amount has been raised to fund a new submission for a judicial review. In addition Ms Ghani has requested the Home Affairs Select Committee hold an enquiry into how the local Wealden District Council interacts with the Home Office and an assessment of the suitability of this particular site given the cost entailed in upgrading it, the location and the enforced cessation of use by Armed Forces cadets.
It was notable that throughout the court hearing zero mention was made of the economic effect on retail and property, the impact on local services, the loss of a valuable local amenity and the safety and wellbeing of local residents in Crowborough: these being beyond the remit of the claim.
In the context of any potential objection from Natural England regarding the camp’s adjacent position to an AONB — the Ashdown Forest — the welfare and protection of the small dark pointy tailed Dartford Warbler did however get a mention. To no avail. Such is the power of the Home Office.
Recently we have learnt that the government spent £3 million on preparing the camp for use. A significant amount of money to spend on accommodation, the use of which was supposedly temporary. At the outset it was indicated that the camp would only be used for twelve months and then revert to use by the Ministry of Defence (Oh the irony..) but having spent £3 million to date and the demand for accommodation for illegal migrants rising exponentially, it seems extremely unlikely that this will be so.
Hardly a saving either on the cost of housing migrants in hotels. On the contrary. That initial expenditure was of course only the beginning as, amongst other ongoing expenditure, Wealden District Council is paid for each migrant who is of course provided with a full range of services. Needless to say, none of this largesse is passed on to local residents who derive zero benefit from this ‘project’.
One of the variety of services provided is a daily coach shuttle service between Crowborough and Crawley which is 20+ miles away. Local sharp eyes have noted that of those camp residents who are transported to Crawley on any given day, a number seem not to return — maybe not on that day and maybe not at all.
Many months ago when the news had just broken, Crowborough residents had an online interview with the Home Office’s Director of Asylum Accommodation. As was already known, the camp residents would be free to come and go 24/7. What was more surprising was the information that if they absented themselves for more than seven days, they would be considered to have removed themselves from the asylum system aka Home Office control.
It may be assumed therefore that the camp residents are taken to Crawley — where there has recently been a significant amount of migrant housing in hotels — on the basis that this enables them to meet with co-nationals and potentially make other arrangements. This may also include meeting with ‘handlers’ who have trafficked them on behalf of crime gangs — or they simply disappear into the black economy.
The sceptic might wonder if this is a deliberate ploy to shift people through the system. A system which apparently allows people to gain entrance to the UK on a false premise and to then disappear – without any ongoing surveillance. The implications for ‘border control’ are clear. The peak crossing period (of the Channel) will begin in a matter of weeks. Given that over 41,000 have entered ‘by irregular means’ since Labour took power, that figure will doubtless rise to extraordinary levels.
This makes Alex Norris’s comments in The Telegraph on 23 March all the more striking. The Border Security and Asylum Minister declared:
“A firm and fair approach to immigration does not mean hard-working taxpayers provide for individuals with refused human rights claims, many of whom are vile criminals.”
Well yes indeed, but how are we supposed to know who the potential ‘vile criminals’ are when we allow people, mostly men, of unknown provenance, culture, religion or political fealty to pour unheeded into the country? The fact that our Home Office doesn’t even bother to try and check whether some of them deserve asylum or who/what/where they are renders the whole system even more dysfunctional. A variety of politicians promote the idea that they will deport illegal migrants asap but with a fair proportion disappearing soon after entry into the country, that will be a herculean task.
As with hard working taxpayers throughout the country, Crowborough residents are acutely aware of this profoundly flawed asylum system — and that it is they who are paying for the result. As they learn of further migrants being placed in the camp the level of frustration heightens. They do not accept the unacceptable and a solid cohort of residents turn out week after week to march through the town and voice their disapproval. Twenty marches have now taken place and as long as the camp is occupied by migrants, as opposed to local cadets, the marches are planned to continue.
Residents have marched through sun, wind, pouring rain and bitter cold from the entrance to the camp and through the High Street to the local Chapel Green every Sunday morning. The marches have been peaceful and pleasant with zero discord. Accompanied by amiable PCSOs the long file of people wends its way past the local care home where elderly residents cluster at large windows to smile and wave or a group of older ladies who stand outside their residence. They are not disturbed by the large number of union and Sussex flags carried by the marchers; on the contrary.
Unfortunately some of our residents are rendered marginally apoplectic by the sight of a quantity of our national or local flags. Would it be so in other countries? It is doubtful that such people have issues when participating in fetes or fiestas abroad where the buildings are bedecked with national flags. Perhaps Free Palestine flags would be more palatable?
Even as every march is confirmed, social media is assailed by a predictable few who signal their virtue and #bekind credentials by terming march participants ‘flag shaggers’, ‘gammons’ and the usual lexicon of insults. Adjoined to these are the local Green and Libdem councillors (who control the area council), who have variously got children to make Valentine’s cards to give to the men in the camp and put together boxes of supplies for them. It is not known whether the cards were delivered — personally or otherwise — but in any case, goodness knows what the young males in the camp make of such strange behaviour. One of the overused refrains of the ‘refugees welcome’ brigade is that the migrants are all ‘human beings’. Well yes.. quite so.. but it doesn’t ensue that the migrants in the camp should be treated as a sort of human petting zoo.
Some of the young men in the camp may be perfectly reasonable and will eventually settle and contribute to our society. However, as the Home Office minister strongly indicated, some of them may turn out to be vile criminals — and that’s just the problem…
Madeleine Gillies is a Crowborough resident with a career in language teaching in the UK and abroad.
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This piece was first published in The Daily Sceptic, and is reproduced by kind permission.
(Photograph: Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Classic NIMBYism, as usual it’s all about Crowborough and therefore suggests less, if any, concern for the other towns and cities blighted by unwanted/unpaying hotel guests. I’m not unsympathetic by any means, but…