MORE than 1,000 people took to the streets to “say no” to the housing of 600 illegal migrants in their town – after hundreds of criminal offences have been linked to asylum seekers this year alone.
The Home Office announced last week Crowborough Army Camp, in East Sussex, is one of two sites earmarked to house small boat arrivals in possibly a matter of weeks, leaving locals up in arms.
This morning hundreds of residents marched through the streets flying English flags and holding placards protesting the imminent arrival of asylum seekers.
Crowborough locals sported signs with messages such as “stop rewarding, start deporting”.
Others said: “Protect our town, protect our communities and protect our families and stop 600 illegal immigrants coming to Crowborough”.
“Home office think again this is so wrong” said another placard.
One protester told GB News: “We all fear for our safety, our security. We have sympathy for some of them, but they’re not all who they like us to think they are.”
“I want safety for our community, my wife, all the youngsters and everything. Not to be frightened to go out in the road.”
Residents of the rural East Sussex town wore Union Jacks and Sussex flags around their shoulders, and one woman simply wore a top saying “NO”.
They claim a lack of consultation from the council and detail about the plans has caused “fear and worry” among the community, home to around 22,000 people.
It comes after reports that at least 200 residents in asylum hotels had been charged with various criminal offences, including sexual assaults, up to August this year.
Syrian refugee Fawaz Alsamaou was jailed last month for a “horrible attack” which saw him sexually assault and strangle a woman under a bridge in Cardiff – and Eritrean migrant and child predator Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from prison.
Cameron Barracks in Inverness will also temporarily house its own share of an estimated 900 migrant men in the new plans, as the Government looks for an alternative to the hotel crisis following a summer of mass protests.
‘Afraid of the unknown’
Local Joanna Ince, whose farm is located close to the training camp, said that the move – due to begin from the end of this month – has left people “afraid of the unknown”.
She told The Sun: “The announcement was just dropped on us from a great height with no consultation and no detail and it is the fear of the unknown that is really worrying people.
“Six hundred unemployed, bored young men in one place is a lot of people and they are going to be… looking for things to do.
“If they had some sort of volunteer work for them or other activities then I think people wouldn’t be quite so worried and distrustful.
“There is plenty of work they could do in Ashdown Forest for instance.”
Joanna added that some of the arrivals will have been “displaced from their homes and traumatised” by their experiences while being “in need of our hospitality but some will not be”.
She said: “They will be here illegally, with an unknown past and that’s where the fear comes in.
“Some of the homes around here are isolated with elderly people living in them – sometimes alone.
“These young men are going to be free to come and go as they wish and will want to check out the area.”
Joanna, 71, who has lived with her husband, John, 78, on the farm for 30 years, said the Government had made a “grave mistake” in not consulting with the local residents.
“I think it’s disgraceful,” she said. “They have gone about this is a really silly fashion, in a way which was always likely to cause huge opposition. I think everyone was deeply shocked.
“If they had consulted with people and provided more detail then people wouldn’t be so worried. People always fear the unknown.”
The training camp lies close to Ashdown Forest and Joanna suggested the men should be found work volunteering for the national park.
“If they could do voluntary work then they would learn a skill and it would keep them occupied,” she told us.
Katherine Seymour, who helps run the stables and lives with her elderly parents nearby, said that although the Government has promised security checks on all the migrants placed in the camp there was worries about how that is carried out.
She is worried about being approached by men when alone and walking in the dark – due to the number of recent sex attacks linked to migrants and asylum seekers this year.
She said: “I live with my parents and I am worried, as a single woman out alone at night on these dark roads, what I should do if I am approached by a group of young men?
“I have lived here all my life and this type of worry is something I have never had to dealt with before.”
Prefab accommodation
Both sites at Crowborough and Cameron Barracks were used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere, with that work ending earlier this year.
Ministers are looking at putting Portakabin-style accommodation on military bases to deal with the asylum crisis.
Sources said they were looking for hardstanding sites on which they could build prefab accommodation.
Richard Wilkinson, 73, who runs a stables near the Crowborough camp with 14 horses, said he wouldn’t mind, as long as the area remains safe.
“If the Government could give me a guarantee that we won’t get any trouble, that the people that use the stables and work here are going to be safe then I wouldn’t mind at all.
“As well as concerns for people that come here I am also worried that my horses are going to be okay and my tractor and equipment were going to be secure then it would be fine – but the Government can’t give me that guarantee.”
Richard continued: “The men are going to be aged 18-25 and they are going to be restless and frustrated cooped up in one place in the middle of nowhere. They are going to want to get out and about.
“What do men of that age want to do? They will want to meet girls and get out and have a good time and that’s what worries me.”
He added: “I also have a disabled wife who is often alone in the house when I am working and I worry about her.
“The idea of having 600 men, bored and unemployed, who are then able to freely wander around this small community is a huge worry. Personally I hope they have a curfew.”
From 2023-2024, Afghans who worked alongside the British Army as well as their families were placed at the training camp after being evacuated under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).
Crowborough has also welcomed dozens of Ukrainian refugees who fled Russia when war broke out in 2022.
Joanna said: “I don’t object to the idea of housing migrants but it has to be the right numbers in the right location.”
A newly-built housing development – some of the properties yet to be sold – stands at the bottom of the road leading to the camp.
The homes, some costing up to £1.4m, have just been completed and residents are worried the announcement will affect them.
One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “We’ve just bought our house and we should have been told. If they knew then the council should have informed us. It should have been a duty to do so.”
He said: “If I had known then I would have thought twice about it as I have a young family.
“The decision will undoubtedly affect my house price though that doesn’t concern me. It is the safety of people around here that worries me.”
Fury as secret plan to put illegal immigrants into STUDENT flats revealed – & locals would have ‘no say’
By Robin Perrie , Chief Foreign Correspondent and Julia Atherley , Home Affairs Correspondent
ANGER erupted last night as it emerged the Home Office’s latest desperate ruse is to put illegal immigrants into student flats.
Officials, under huge pressure to close down asylum hotels, want to spend millions of pounds on the plan.
In one case, they tried to slip in a planning application to transform a 247-bed block of flats in Leeds into a hostel for asylum seekers.
The site is close to the famous Otley Run pub crawl, enjoyed by thousands of students in fancy dress every weekend in term time.
The application for Mary Morris House in Headingley, which is owned by a London-based property firm, was submitted a month ago and will be decided in October.
It does not mention asylum seekers nor does it say how many will be housed there or when they will move in.
And it was only when Leeds City Council put out a statement that the Home Office’s intentions for the block became clear.
The council said: “The Home Office has advised the council that the submission is part of wider central government efforts to reduce the reliance on hotel use for those seeking asylum.”
The public are not allowed to formally object to the plan or make any official comment on it as part of the planning process.
Locals in Leeds reacted with fury to the plan and accused the Government of trying to solve the hotels crisis by the back door.
Tessa Fox, who lives in a big farm 500 metres from the camp, said: “I am often here alone, completely cut off from anyone with no close neighbours so it does worry me.
“We have no idea about the background of these undocumented young men.
“No one would hear me if I tried to raise the alarm if a group of them decided to come up to my farm. The isolation makes me very vulnerable.”
Tessa, 60, who lives with her husband Geoff, 65, said: “This decision has been dropped on us from on high with no consultation and no warning whatsoever but it is the secrecy of how they have been conducting this that has raised fears.
“The decision is a fait accompli and there is no way for residents to raise any objections.”
She said a lack of clarity from the Home Office was playing into the hands of the racists.
“The Afghan families who came over had worked for the British Army and their background was known. Checks had been carried out.
“This new influx however are illegal immigrants whose background is a complete unknown.”
Sarah Ridge, who works on the farm, said: “The secrecy is a big issue. Why have people not been consulted over this? It is the fear of the unknown which has caused this panic.”
Court records linked to 50 asylum hotels
Court records show that 211 people living in the hotels, which are used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers, have been charged with a combined 425 offences.
Of these, 109 were violent offences and 44 were sexual offences, including four counts of alleged rape. There were also 63 theft-related offences.
The Telegraph analysed court records linked to 50 known asylum hotels.
There are more than 200 such sites across the UK used to house those seeking asylum, with still more asylum seekers housed in private rentals.
Not every defendant who lists one of these hotels as their place of residence is necessarily an asylum seeker.
The plans have sparked a mixed reaction in Crowborough with some residents in opposition while others say the town should show compassion.
Wealden District Council deputy leader Rachel Millward said the local authority had sought legal advice over the Home Office decision.
The council said the Home Office’s “dire mismanagement” of the situation was “already causing problems”, including personal threats against council leaders.
It said it had concerns over “staffing at the camp, police provision and the additional strain on already overstretched public services”.
A spokesperson said: “Accommodating 600 men who have no right to work in one camp clearly brings risks for asylum seekers and residents alike.
“We want residents to know that the Home Office alone decides where asylum seekers are housed and not councils.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“This government will close every asylum hotel.
“Work is well underway, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities across the country.
“We are working closely with local authorities, property partners and across-government so that we can accelerate delivery.”
