Protests held over asylum plan for MoD base

Two separate groups of protesters have gathered to oppose plans to provide accommodation for asylum seekers on a former military base.

The Home Office announced plans to use the Ministry of Defence (MoD) site near Bicester in Oxfordshire to house 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers last month, as part of plans to move people out of hotels.

Protestors gathered in the town centre, with some raising safety concerns about using the base, while an anti-racism group called for the processing of asylum claims to be made "more efficient".

Thames Valley Police said 300 people were in attendance, and the protests "passed peacefully without incident".

Kelsey Day who attended the protest with her husband and three sons, said: "We're not against migrants coming over here but they should come legally.

"We don't know who these men are, we don't know where they're from and what they're about. I want my kids to grow up safe."

Another protester, Sam, said the site would be "a male-only dumping ground".

"I feel we're constantly being called racist and that's not the case. I don't care what colour you are or where you come from, if there is a risk to my children, that's enough for me."

Jane Coles from Oxfordshire Stand up to Racism said she opposed the "inhumane warehousing" of asylum seekers on such sites.

"It would become a magnet for right-wing agitators and it will have a really polarising effect on the population in Bicester.

"We believe the government would be better putting the money into the Home Office to ensure the system for processing asylum claims is much more efficient and much quicker, so the need for this kind of housing will be very much reduced."

A factsheet published online by the Home Office said the site would provide "basic, safe accommodation" and would be designed to be "largely self‑sufficient to minimise any impact on the local community".

If approved, it would be used for a minimum of ten years to house about 1,250 asylum seekers.

The Home Office said all would have had mandatory security checks linking their biometric data to immigration, security, and criminality databases.

It also said the site would be monitored by CCTV and 24/7 security and would be self-contained, with essential services provided to reduce the impact on local services.

Asylum seekers would not be detained but, if they wished to leave the site, would follow a sign-in-sign-out process.

The government previously stated its intention to increase the number of MoD sites it was using to accommodate asylum seekers last year.

Two former military sites - RAF Wethersfield in Essex and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex - are already being used to house asylum seekers.

Labour has pledged to stop using asylum hotels, a costly form of accommodation that has become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.