NEW ASYLUM SEEKER UNIT SPARKS ROW
POLICE were called to a military base in Pembrokeshire on Saturday as protests were staged against plans to use it as a temporary camp for asylum seekers.
Up to 250 asylum seekers, who will be single adult males, will be housed at the MoD facility in Penally, just outside Tenby, as facilities in south-east England reach straining point.
All those in the camp will be free to move around the area while their claims are being processed, with a checking-in system to monitor their movements.
Penally’s army training centre was the only location considered in Wales by the Home Office, but locals say the plan had been “sprung” on the village. South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart said he was only told about the plans last week.
Around 100 protesters marched from the camp into Tudor Square with around another 50 bystanders listening and applauding the proceedings. Many of them have been carrying banners, including one which read: “Tell Boris Penally people’s lives matter.”
Mark Davies, organiser of the march, read out a letter issued yesterday by South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart.
Police were at the scene to ensure it was a peaceful protest.
Dyfed-Powys Police superintendent Craig Templeton said: “Officers are at the scene of a planned protest being staged in Penally. The police presence is to provide reassurance to the local community and facilitate peaceful protest.”
Organiser Mr Davies said: “We understand these people have to have somewhere to go, but surely somewhere like Pembrokeshire is better placed to help and support families rather than 250 men. We’re willing to compromise, so why can’t the people who are paid to make these decisions?”
One resident of Penally said: “This is going to affect our way of life. People in the village are setting up CCTV, getting locks on their sheds. They’re scared.
“For our government to tell us it will have minimal impact is just a stab in the back.”
Natasha Bertran was born in Penally and went to school there and her mum still lives in the village.
She said: ”What are they going to be able to do? I don’t know what these poor men are going to be able to do in the middle of winter in Tenby.
“We are just concerned for ourselves and what’s going on here. Everyone just wants answers.”
The UK Government has said the plan for Penally is a “temporary arrangement” of up to a year.
It is understood it will be one of two “migrant camps” for people who have crossed the Channel in small boats. A disused army barracks in Kent is also due to receive asylum seekers next week. Around 400 people, including families, are set to be housed in temporary accommodation at Napier Barracks in Folkestone.
The temporary accommodation is required due in part to the fact existing facilities cannot be made “Covid-compliant” and extra capacity is needed elsewhere. Such is the “emergency situation”, the Home Office said it had been unable to consult “in the usual manner”.
A spokesman for the UK Government said: “This site was selected because it met the required needs following an assessment by the MOD of potentially suitable and available sites.”
The Home Office has confirmed it will provide onsite security. The spokesman added: “However, these people are not being detained so they are able to leave the site if they wish.
“We will be providing all their meals and wellbeing services onsite, so we would anticipate they have limited need to leave the site.”
But Plaid Cymru’s equalities spokeswoman, Leanne Wood, said a military camp was a “perverse” place for people who may have witnessed “the horrors of conflict”.
She said: “In meeting its moral duty to protect these individuals, the UK Government should identify sites which are both safe and suitable to house them.
“At present, they seem to be failing on both fronts.”