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What changed after a village air base was used as an asylum centre?

Simon Dedman
BBC political reporter, Essex
Reporting fromWethersfield
John Fairhall/BBC A smiling Jacqui Braithwaite stands behind the bar of her pub. She has short hair dyed lilac and is wearing black-rimmed glasses and a flowery pink blouse. There are a number of bottles of spirits on a shelf behind her. John Fairhall/BBC
Jacqui Braithwaite says the effect of the asylum centre has been negligible

In March 2023, the government decided a former air base one mile from a small rural village in Essex should be used to house male asylum seekers. Two years on, what is it like for the local community and migrants living at MDP Wethersfield?

A few minutes' drive from Wethersfield is the picture-postcard village of Finchingfield. Adorned with tea rooms, pubs and a duck pond surrounded by Georgian homes, it is less than two miles from the migrant accommodation.

The Finchingfield Lion pub was packed on a Friday afternoon, with a roaring log burner warming the locals.

Simon Dedman/BBC Georgian houses around a green and duck pond in Finchingfield. The homes are painted white, lilac and blue and there is a red-brick bridge over the duck pond. A number of cars are parked on the road. Simon Dedman/BBC
The village of Finchingfield is two miles away from the migrant accommodation at MDP Wethersfield

Landlady Jacqui Braithwaite says the direct impact on the community from the asylum seekers was "negligible" and residents "rarely" saw small groups of people from the base walking around the area. But she feels the centre has affected the area in a different way.

"The impact on the people here has been really profound. It has divided us - the whole community. There were probably loads of racists here before but it never showed," she says.

"When the asylum [centre] happened, people just started saying things and they felt OK saying them. Horrible, racist things.

"I have people who don't come into my pub anymore. I came out as non-racist. I did a post that said they are just people, they are not bad people, they have been given a really crap hand and they are trying to find a way to live, to find a life.

"People are blaming them for everything. Anything that gets nicked or any can thrown out of a car into the hedge rows, all of a sudden it is 'because of asylum seekers'."

John Fairhall/BBC Philip O'Reilly sits on a brown leather sofa with one hand stroking the back of his springer spaniel. He is wearing jeans and a grey jumper. Two guitars are hanging on the wall behind him. John Fairhall/BBC
Philip O'Reilly says his female neighbours feel uncomfortable in Braintree town centre

Philip O'Reilly is sitting with his spaniel nursing a pint of local bitter in Jacqui's pub. He says he is neither for nor against the asylum seekers at the base.

"I'm more concerned when I or my wife go shopping in Braintree," he says. "Without a doubt, there are groups of men not native to England that seem to gather on corners, more on market day.

"I have had one or two of my female neighbours who feel uncomfortable in Braintree town centre."

Tony Clarke-Holland lives metres from MDP Wethersfield's perimeter fence, which was previously one of the remotest areas of Essex. Over the past two years, he described the base as having become a hub of activity again.

He says: "It's become our new norm. It impacts everyone's life, sometimes it's more of a mental and intangible thing. You are living with it daily.

"We hear noise and bits and bobs on occasion. Before, it was a very quiet area."

John Fairhall/BBC Alan MacKenzie smiles at the camera and is photographed outside. He has white hair and is wearing glasses. He has a dark brown coat on with a navy jumper and shirt. John Fairhall/BBC
Alan MacKenzie says local fears about the accommodation "have not come to fruition"

Alan Mackenzie, the chair of the campaign group Fields Association, says when the decision was announced "there was a tremendous amount of concern by everybody in the area, because there is no experience of anything like this".

He says: "[Wethersfield] is a village of just 700 people. Having the possibility of 1,700 asylum seekers descending not that far away on a small village was a serious concern."

Yet, he adds, "a lot of those fears haven't come to fruition". The estimated 500 migrants "seems to be a number which is kept under sensible control up at the base".

What is MDP Wethersfield?

PA Media An aerial view of MDP WethersfieldPA Media
  • The site is a former RAF base owned by the Ministry of Defence
  • MDP stands for Ministry of Defence Police
  • It houses single adult male asylum seekers aged between 18 and 65
  • The first migrants moved into the accommodation in July 2023 and about 530 men currently live there
  • A High Court judge found Suella Braverman acted unlawfully as home secretary when three vulnerable asylum seekers were housed at the site
  • The judge added there were no wider "systemic failures" in housing migrants at the base

Source: BBC/Home Office

Among those living at MDP Wethersfield is Kareem, 25, who is part of the Bidoon minority in Kuwait. He recently arrived in the UK by boat from Calais.

On a Sunday evening Kareem, alongside about two dozen other men who are mostly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, dons a football kit and borrowed boots to enthusiastically kick a ball across an icy pitch.

The players are all asylum seekers living at Wethersfield, who compete in Wethersfield FC – a football league amongst the men at the base.

A smiling Kareem looks directly at the camera with his thumbs up at the camera. He is wearing a red football shirt with a red vest over the top and yellow-neon football gloves. He also has a gold chain and a black hat on. He is standing on green football pitch with a rugby goal behind him.
Kareem says he and other migrants were treated badly in other European countries

Kareem describes the accommodation at Wethersfield as "great".

"I love the camp, I love where I live... I want to be in the UK instead of any other country in the world, because the UK is helping everyone who don't have rights."

He says his community is denied education, access to work and citizenship in Kuwait. The UK government says the Bidoon people have been classed as "illegal residents" by the Kuwaiti state since the 1960s.

Simon Dedman/BBC A group of men pose for a team photo at night. The group are largely young men who are smiling and cheering for the camera. They are standing and sitting on an artificial grass pitch at night. A woman with blonde hair smiles and stands to the left of the photo. She is wearing a red jumper and black gilet. Simon Dedman/BBC
Liubov Liushnenko (far left) works with asylum seekers and says she has always felt safe and respected

Liubov Liushnenko, 28, is a Ukrainian refugee and works for the charity Changing Lives, which provides sporting activities at the base, such as football, table tennis and volleyball. She says the men have always treated her with respect.

"I feel safe, I feel respectful. They are wonderful," she says.

"In their countries, in their religions, they are not allowed to say something bad about a woman. I feel absolutely safe there."

English, art and music lessons are also provided with support from the Home Office and Braintree District Council.

Saleh smiles at the camera as he stands inside a glass-panelled room. He is wearing a green puffer jacket and three other men are sat on sofas behind him. In the background you can see the football pitch the team play on.
Saleh from Yemen says if he is granted asylum, he wants to work as do most people at Wethersfield

Another player, Saleh, 28, from Yemen, said: "It's like normal, it's fine on Wethersfield. It's not better than other places, but it is fine."

In 2023, some asylum seekers held protests outside the base over their living conditions, such as the quality of food and lack of activities.

Some of the men at the time reported there was "almost nightly fighting" between different groups and a 2024 British Red Cross assessment found more than 70% of residents did not feel safe on the site.

Yafet, 25, from Eritrea, says: "It's fine now. I have not seen this fighting during my time [at Wethersfield]... people love each other."

Simon Dedman/BBC Liubov Liushnenko stands speaking to a number of the players part of Wethersfield FC. The men are wearing blue vests and Ms Liushnenko is wearing a red jumper and dark gilet. She has her hands clasped together. Simon Dedman/BBC
The work of Changing Lives has been praised for improving the wellbeing of the men

The Home Office said asylum seekers should stay for a maximum of nine months at Wethersfield and then be placed in dispersal accommodation – usually shared housing in towns and cities.

Yusuf, from Sudan, stayed at Wethersfield for six months and since December has been living in Colchester. He has just received his refugee status and wants to train as a plumber.

"I was scared from the first time I entered [Wethersfield]. But the time when I was there for six months, I have seen there was nothing to fear about it."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We remain of the belief that the Wethersfield site provides fully adequate and functional accommodation."

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