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morning (a pseudonym) says Anushka asthana about his stay at Napier, a former army barracks near Folkestone, Kent. Within days of getting there, she contracted scabies and then Covid-19. After a fire in one of the apartment blocks, there was no heating for days.
Home Affairs Correspondent for The Guardian, Jamie grierson, examines why the government has decided to use two former army barracks, Napier and Penally in Wales, to house up to 600 vulnerable asylum seekers. The barracks, run by private contractor Clearsprings, have been criticized for their overcrowded conditions, limited access to medical care and legal advice and, most recently, a significant Covid-19 outbreak infecting more than one in four of the 400 Napier residents.
Anushka also talks to Dr. Jill O’Leary, the chief physician of the Helen Bamber Foundation’s medical advisory service, who describes the enormous mental health strain that conditions in the barracks have caused for asylum seekers forced to remain there.
Photograph: Ben Stansall / AFP / Getty Images
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