Photos of former prison chosen to house asylum seekers show squalid conditions

Campaigners said plans to use dilapidated Bexhill site could retraumatise those fleeing oppressive regimes

Refugee campaigners have condemned squalid and dilapidated conditions inside a former prison in East Sussex that the Home Office is planning to use to accommodate asylum seekers.

Photographs obtained by the Guardian of the Bexhill site, previously Northeye Prison, reveal broken ceilings with wires hanging down, pools of water on floors, rusted window frames and tiny cells with huge bolts on the outside of the doors and rectangular slats that guards looked through to view former prisoners.