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A humanitarian crisis is rapidly unfolding at Napier barracks - Britain's first modern-day refugee camp, run controversially by the @ukhomeoffice - where a Covid outbreak is spiralling out of control. I've been contacted by dozens of residents who don't know where to turn 
Asylum-seekers - many of whom have been housed at the crowded camp for months waiting for their claims to be processed - are now locked inside, with police patrolling the fences. Up to 28 people are sharing two bedrooms and a bathroom, making social distancing is impossible
Despite multiple warnings from humanitarian organisations that this site is completely unsuitable for asylum-seeker accommodation, Home Office minister @CPhilpOfficial has attempted to blame residents for the current crisis, warning that refugees 'could face enforcement action'
"When we are becoming more and more mentally vulnerable and physically ill... the Home Office are intentionally ignoring us and trying their best to cover up the disaster which is happening in this army camp," say many of the Napier residents, in a joint public letter
"We are detained without knowing what we have done to deserve living conditions like this," the letter says. "There are fathers, sons and husbands here. There are nurses, teachers, engineers and talented people here and yet we have been treated like criminals or prisoners"
"We lost our hope as we do not have a voice to defend us," concludes the letter. It is signed by well over a hundred asylum-seekers at Napier. To protect their identities I am not sharing the list of signatories, which runs to five pages
In a message, one Napier resident told me "We died once already when we left our families, friends, homes and identities, so death is not something we are afraid of... [but here] we feel hopeless. Please tell your people we are not invaders to your country, we are asylum-seekers"
For more on what's happening at Napier, check out recent news stories by @maybulman, @JamieGrierson and the team at @kentlivenews, as well as updates from solidarity organisations like @_KRAN_ and @Care4Calais. My long-read on Napier for @tortoise is here: http://torto.se/2Xez8At
Thanks to everyone helping to share info about Napier
If you want to take action, do consider signing @FreefromTorture's petition ( https://action.freedomfromtorture.org/close-the-barracks), emailing your MP via @RefugeeAction ( https://act.refugee-action.org.uk/page/73095/action/1), and supporting local migrant solidarity groups like @_KRAN_
If you want to take action, do consider signing @FreefromTorture's petition ( https://action.freedomfromtorture.org/close-the-barracks), emailing your MP via @RefugeeAction ( https://act.refugee-action.org.uk/page/73095/action/1), and supporting local migrant solidarity groups like @_KRAN_
And to those replying with misinformation about 'illegal asylum-seekers' (there is no such thing) and Britain being 'swamped' by migrant dinghies - this thread below has the facts on people travelling to Britain by boat across the Channel https://twitter.com/hackneylad/status/1346528070774247432
More images sent to me from inside Napier Barracks
today, showing police surrounding the camp & filming asylum-seekers inside
The protest banner held by residents reads: "This place is like prisons in our country, but the methods of torture are different"
today, showing police surrounding the camp & filming asylum-seekers inside
The protest banner held by residents reads: "This place is like prisons in our country, but the methods of torture are different"
