Doctors of the World UK and Médecins Sans Frontières say asylum seekers with severe mental distress still being held at former RAF base
A new report by Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) documents the conditions at the former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex, which currently serves as asylum accommodation, and urges its immediate closure.
The 14-page report, "A Lonely Place": How Wethersfield is harming people seeking asylum, can be downloaded here.
Wethersfield holds up to 800 men aged from 18 to 65. It opened in July 2023, and DOTW and MSF have provided primary healthcare to asylum seekers accommodated at the site since autumn 2023.
In a report published last year, DOTW and MSF detailed a mental health crisis among Wethersfield's residents. The medical charities' new report finds that the site is still failing the men accommodated there and it continues to cause immense harm.
Residents describe the former RAF base as 'prison-like' and isolated, which worsens psychological distress in the people held there.
In their report, DOTW and MSF noted: "Between August and October 2024, we carried out interviews with people accommodated at Wethersfield to better understand their experiences of the site and its impact on their health and wellbeing. […] The men we interviewed spoke about the major impact the site was having on their mental health, as well as on the mental health of those around them. It is clear that the isolated location of Wethersfield and the living conditions onsite exacerbate and contribute to a deterioration in people's mental health over time."
Many of the asylum seekers accommodated at the site have experienced violence and trauma and have complex psychological needs. While there was some improvement following the change of government in July 2024 and the subsequent scrapping of the Rwanda plan and resumption of asylum processing, mental distress at Wethersfield remained high and asylum seekers with severe mental distress continued to be accommodated there.
DOTW and MSF explained: "[O]ur medical team observed that men were not being appropriately screened, and that many individuals were accommodated onsite despite being 'unsuitable' according to the Home Office's own guidance. […] Our team documented serious failures to protect and safeguard the men held at Wethersfield, including a lack of transparency, coordination and pathways for identifying and sharing safeguarding concerns about residents among the organisations responsible."
More than half (62%) of Wethersfield's residents who accessed DOTW and MSF's mobile clinic at the site presented with severe mental distress. Many individuals had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other common diagnoses included acute stress reaction and depressive disorder.
One resident is quoted as saying: "I feel down, I feel in a lonely place. I feel like I am in an empty dark place always because I don't know what is going to happen. I am barely sleeping now, because when the interview come – because I lost my chance to have a normal life."
MSF's UK Operations Migration Project Manager, Jacob Burns, noted that despite last year's change in government, the same inhumane and restrictive policies continue to operate at Wethersfield.
DOTW and MSF say that Wethersfield, and other similar mass containment sites, should be immediately closed, as they are inherently and intentionally harmful. Instead, the organisations urge authorities to provide dignified and safe community-based housing for asylum seekers, whilst also ensuring access to specialist mental health support.
"It is beyond comprehension that Wethersfield remains open, a site which has been the source of intense suffering for people who came to the UK in search of safety," MSF's Jacob Burns commented.