RAF Wethersfield: High Court makes judgement

HIGH COURT FINDS THE HOME SECRETARY ACTED UNLAWFULLY IN ACCOMMODATING THREE ASYLUM SEEKERS AT RAF WETHERSFIELD

Today, the High Court found that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully by accommodating three vulnerable asylum seekers at a containment site at RAF Wethersfield. These individuals are victims of trafficking, torture and/or serious physical violence who each suffered a serious decline in their mental health as a result of living at Wethersfield. The Court also held that the failure to assess the equalities impact of the Home Secretary’s asylum accommodation policy was “a most serious and inexplicable omission”.

As a humanitarian organisation that has provided medical care to residents of the camp through our mobile clinic, we welcome the court’s recognition that the Home Secretary’s asylum accommodation policy has, and continues to, fail to adequately protect asylum seekers with special needs or disabilities. This ruling adds to the mounting evidence that mass containment sites like RAF Wethersfield are wholly unsuitable and unsafe for people seeking protection in the UK.

Doctors of the World is proud to have assisted the court with this case by providing a witness statement highlighting the severe impact this facility has had on the health and well-being of the people housed there.

However, despite this welcome judgment from the court, we remain deeply concerned about the ongoing safety and healthcare challenges at RAF Wethersfield. Our experience supporting patients at the site has consistently shown that containment camps such as this one are profoundly damaging to residents’ mental health. The enclosed, isolated environment, lack of community integration, and uncertainty about the future continue to cause severe distress. We know that, between October 2023 and December 2024, more than 62% of our patients at Wethersfield presented with severe mental distress and 30% with suicidal ideation.

Our position remains that RAF Wethersfield must be closed on medical and humanitarian grounds. People should be placed in safe, dignified accommodation within the community, where they have access to comprehensive physical and mental healthcare, so they are able to get on with rebuilding their lives.

Doctors of the World will continue to call for the urgent closure of RAF Wethersfield.

Press contact: media@doctorsoftheworld.org.uk