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  6.  » Gym, Football Pitch, Snack Bar and 17 Free Minibuses: Inside the Wethersfield Asylum ‘Holiday Camp’

Residents of Wetherfield asylum camp are provided with free transport to nearby towns

Richard Eldred – The Daily Sceptic Aug 25, 2026

Writing in the Mail, Reform councillor and Essex Council leader Peter Harris tours Wethersfield’s former RAF base, now an asylum ‘holiday camp’ with gyms, sports pitches and free food. Here’s an excerpt:

Welcome to Holiday Camp UK. For the 800 guests enjoying the luxury sports facilities, this place is unbeatable.

As I saw for myself this week on a visit to the camp in Wethersfield, deep in the Essex countryside, residents want for practically nothing. There’s a fully equipped gymnasium, a fitness room, a full-sized football pitch and a substantial indoor sports hall with all the equipment for five-a-side soccer, basketball and cricket – all free.

For those who want to kick back and take it easy, there are recreation rooms with televisions and pool tables, and a snack bar.

Mobile phones are provided for all, with generous allowances for free calls.

The main restaurant, serving two dining halls, provides three meals a day with a wide choice of meals, including vegetarian options.

All the food is free. The only restriction is that all meat is halal – non-Muslims don’t get a choice about that.

Similarly, though the prayer rooms are described as a multi-faith area, most of the religious material is Islamic, with plenty of Korans and no Bibles. Prayer mats cover almost all the available floor space.

A squadron of free minibuses, 17 of them, are laid on three times a day, seven days a week – even on Christmas Day – to take the 800 camp residents into the nearby towns of Braintree, Chelmsford and Colchester.

And how much does it cost to stay here? For residents, that’s the best bit. Not only is everything free, but there’s a tenner a week extra in every pocket… or, to be absolutely accurate, an allowance of £9.95 per person, to cover any incidental costs, loaded onto a prepaid debit card.

The official name for this place is Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation.

And how much does it cost to stay here? For residents, that’s the best bit. Not only is everything free, but there’s a tenner a week extra in every pocket… or, to be absolutely accurate, an allowance of £9.95 per person, to cover any incidental costs, loaded onto a prepaid debit card.

The official name for this place is Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation.

And although it’s free for the hundreds of ‘happy campers’, the bill for Britain is eye-watering. According to a National Audit Office report last year, asylum accommodation contracts are estimated to cost the taxpayer £15.3 billion over the next 10 years.

So-called ‘dispersal sites’, mostly former military properties, are regarded as cheaper than the short-term solution of placing illegal migrants in hotels. But the impact on surrounding communities is immense and the sheer unfairness of the financial burden is shocking.

Not that all the illegal migrants here seem to appreciate it. The most frequent request posted in the suggestion boxes is not for educational resources, or even pleas for news of loved ones supposedly left behind in war zones and terror states. What irks them most, apparently, is the lack of a swimming pool. …

The first stop for most illegal migrants, whether they arrive across the Channel on a small boat or stowing away in lorries and other vehicles, is Manston Asylum Processing Centre in Kent, another former military airfield. Here they are vetted and undergo biometric testing, including fingerprinting. DNA samples, however, are not taken.

When I enquired about this, I was told that it might contravene their human rights, despite the obvious help it would offer police if any of the migrants go on to commit crimes. The men – and they are all men, aged 18 to 40 – can arrive at Wethersfield with new names, if they do not want to divulge their real ones at Manston. In effect, they have access to a whole new identity. Once this is registered, there appears to be almost no way of knowing who they were before they came here.

Those bodybuilders in the gym could easily be part of an army sent here piecemeal by an enemy state such as Iran. And we are paying for their training. If you wanted to help terrorists come into the country unknown and unregistered with no checks on them, I can’t think of a better system.

Worth reading in full.