High Court to hear council's bid to block plans for asylum centre at RAF airfield
The High Court is set to hear a council's bid to block Government plans for an asylum centre at an RAF airfield.
Last month, immigration minister Robert Jenrick unveiled plans to house asylum seekers in disused military bases to accommodate their "essential living needs and nothing more" to reduce reliance on hotels.
However, Braintree District Council is bringing legal action over the proposed use of RAF Wethersfield in Essex.
The council will ask the High Court at a hearing today for an injunction against the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence to stop the centre from being established.
In a previous statement, the council said: "We remain of the view that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site to house asylum seekers, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant impact upon the local community."
The council has also said that the Home Office has agreed not to move any migrants onto the site until after the hearing and if they successfully defend against the injunction.
Mr Jenrick has previously said the sites are "undoubtedly in the national interest" and said "single adult males" only will be put into the barracks, as he seeks to reduce a hotel bill he put at ÂŁ2.3bn a year.
The hearing comes after Home Office figures published on Tuesday confirmed the provisional total number of people who arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel to date in 2023 now stands at 5,049.
The cumulative number of Channel crossings this year is currently running below the level for 2022.
Join Our Newsletter
