Deadly experiment? UK asylum sites criticised for ‘horrific’ level of despair

Critics of the government’s mass housing plan say it won’t save public money and at worst put asylum seekers at risk of suicide

Twice in January, ambulances rushed to the former RAF airbase at Wethersfield in a remote part of Essex, now the Home Office’s biggest mass asylum accommodation site, to attend to suicide attempts. On each occasion, an asylum seeker was admitted to hospital. Both survived.

Acts of self-harm have been common since part of the 325-hectare (800-acre) site, which first opened in 1944, started to be used to house refugees in July 2023.