{"id":104432,"date":"2026-08-27T04:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=104432"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:00:56","slug":"welcome-to-holiday-camp-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/welcome-to-holiday-camp-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"“Welcome to Holiday Camp UK”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Substack Notes<\/em>, Earl<\/a> describes the horrific plight of refugees in the UK, specifically those housed under brutal conditions at a camp in Essex, the Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside the asylum centre “holiday camp”: A gym, football pitch, snack bar — and 17 minibuses to ferry migrants into towns. Leader of Essex County Council was given access to Wethersfield former RAF base … this is what he found<\/p>\n

Welcome to Holiday Camp UK. For the 800 guests enjoying the luxury sports facilities, this place is unbeatable.<\/p>\n

As I saw for myself this week on a visit to the camp in Wethersfield, deep in the Essex countryside, residents want for practically nothing. There’s a fully equipped gymnasium, a fitness room, a full-sized football pitch and a substantial indoor sports hall with all the equipment for five-a-side soccer, basketball and cricket \u2013 all free.<\/p>\n

For those who want to kick back and take it easy, there are recreation rooms with televisions and pool tables, and a snack bar.<\/p>\n

Mobile phones are provided for all, with generous allowances for free calls.<\/p>\n

The main restaurant, serving two dining halls, provides three meals a day with a wide choice of meals, including vegetarian options.<\/p>\n

All the food is free. The only restriction is that all meat is halal<\/em> \u2013 non-Muslims don’t get a choice about that.<\/p>\n

Similarly, though the prayer rooms are described as a multi-faith area, most of the religious material is Islamic, with plenty of Korans and no Bibles. Prayer mats cover almost all the available floor space.<\/p>\n

A squadron of free minibuses, 17 of them, are laid on three times a day, seven days a week \u2013 even on Christmas Day \u2013 to take the 800 camp residents into the nearby towns of Braintree, Chelmsford and Colchester.<\/p>\n

And how much does it cost to stay here? For residents, that’s the best bit. Not only is everything free, but there’s a tenner a week extra in every pocket … or, to be absolutely accurate, an allowance of \u00a39.95 per person, to cover any incidental costs, loaded onto a prepaid debit card.<\/p>\n

The official name for this place is Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation.<\/p>\n

And although it’s free for the hundreds of “happy campers”, the bill for Britain is eye-watering. According to a National Audit Office report last year, asylum accommodation contracts are estimated to cost the taxpayer \u00a315.3billion over the next ten years.<\/p>\n

So-called “dispersal sites”, mostly former military properties, are regarded as cheaper than the short-term solution of placing illegal migrants in hotels. But the impact on surrounding communities is immense and the sheer unfairness of the financial burden is shocking.<\/p>\n

Not that all the illegal migrants here seem to appreciate it. The most frequent request posted in the suggestion boxes is not for educational resources, or even pleas for news of loved ones supposedly left behind in war zones and terror states. What irks them most, apparently, is the lack of a swimming pool.<\/p>\n

As a Reform UK councillor and leader of Essex County Council, I have been deeply concerned about the impact of Wethersfield on local people for three years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Substack Notes, Earl describes the horrific plight of refugees in the UK, specifically those housed under brutal conditions at a camp in Essex, the Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation: Inside the asylum centre “holiday camp”: A gym, football pitch, snack bar — and 17 minibuses to ferry migrants into towns. Leader of Essex County Council […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,84],"tags":[554,558],"class_list":["post-104432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-government","tag-immigration","tag-refugees"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-rao","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104434,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104432\/revisions\/104434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}