Report reveals ‘appalling treatment’ at Napier
'Those accommodated there have been left "dehumanised, exhausted and suffering a profound deterioration in their mental health".'
A cross-party group of politicians is pressing the government to end its use of Napier Barracks in Kent to accommodate people seeking asylum. The call was made in a report published this month, for which Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) made submissions.
Sheila Mosley, on behalf of QARN, told the Friend: ‘The report calls on the government to end its use of such sites, and urges it to instead house people seeking asylum in decent, safe accommodation in the community that supports their well-being and recovery from trauma, facilitates their engagement with the asylum process, and allows them to build links with their community.
‘If this were implemented it would be a small step back from the increasingly hostile environment that is deliberately being created.’
The report also recommends the scrapping of government plans for more large-scale accommodation based on Napier as a pilot.
Asylum seekers accommodated at sites such as Napier Barracks in Folkestone have been subjected to ‘appalling treatment and conditions’, it said. Features of the sites, including their prison-like conditions, make them ‘fundamentally unsuitable’ as asylum accommodation, it said. ‘For survivors of torture, trafficking or other serious forms of violence – as many asylum-seekers are – such conditions can cause them to relive past abuses and be highly re-traumatising.’
The report also highlights ‘serious operational failings by the Home Office and its contractors in their running of the sites’. It said those accommodated there have been left ‘dehumanised, exhausted and suffering a profound deterioration in their mental health, in some cases to the point of attempting suicide’.
The report is the result of an inquiry by the All Parliamentary Party Group (APPG) on Immigration Detention, which gathered oral evidence from over thirty participants, including QARN.
The government extended its use of Napier Barracks until 2025 without consultation in August this year. The High Court has now granted permission for a judicial review challenging this decision.
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