A migrant staying at an asylum centre says there is “almost nightly fighting” between different nationalities living at the facility.
The BBC says footage appears to show a brawl involving several men in the canteen of the Wethersfield asylum centre in Essex. The broadcaster says chairs were thrown and one man had a bloodied face.
An anonymous asylum seeker said the facility – a former military base – has “many problems”. They say “no one on the camp is feeling safe”.
A government source told the BBC there had been a small number of incidents at the site. While a Home Office spokesperson said: “Fighting and any forms of vandalism at Wethersfield are totally unacceptable.”
The asylum seeker says there was “almost nightly fighting with another nationality, because the number of people is many”. The report comes after asylum seekers living at the centre staged a protest over “prison-like” conditions.
It is unclear why the migrants at the centre were fighting. The BBC says some of the minisbuses that take migrants to Braintree, Colchester and Chelmsford have also had their windows smashed and vandalised.
The Home Office says it would continue “to work closely with our provider to ensure people behave appropriately on site”. “The safety of individuals remains our utmost priority,” a spokesperson added.
Asylum seekers began moving onto the base in July. Braintree council had tried to stop the base being used to house up to 1,700 single male asylum seekers.
However it failed to get an injuction preventing the move. The council is said to be considering appealing against the judicial review that said the Home Office acted legally.
The Home Office is understood to be planning to apply a special development order that would allow it to use Wethersfield for a further three years until 2027.
