Government faces legal challenge over ‘unlawful segregation’ of asylum seekers

Charity Care4Calais says Wethersfield airbase in Essex is a de facto prison camp' for about 200 people

The Home Office has been accused of unlawfully segregating asylum seekers from the local population based on their nationality by falsely imprisoning" them on a remote Essex airbase.

A legal challenge launched by the charity Care4Calais against the home secretary, Suella Braverman, has warned that about 200 people accommodated at Wethersfield airbase are being subjected to segregation by nationality". Many living at the base, which is almost 12 miles from the nearest town, Braintree, come from countries including Eritrea and Afghanistan, while the majority of the population in villages close to the base are white.