Crowborough’s Illegal Migrants Are Catching Their Taxpayer-Funded Bus to Crawley and Not Coming Back

Since then the town’s opposition to the plan has passed through various phases, including a legal initiative which involved a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. The aim was to gain a judicial review regarding the use of the camp. This was not granted on the basis that Crowborough Shield’s plaint had been presented prematurely, despite this being after news had emerged of the use of the camp and there being clear evidence it was being readied. The fact that its usual occupants – local cadets – had been ousted provided further concrete evidence.

During this preparatory period, the Home Office was asked repeatedly for its written confirmation that the camp would indeed be used and from what date. Such requests from various agents, including the local MP Nusrat Ghani, were ignored and the Home Office either didn’t respond or stated repeatedly that no decision had been made. That is, until January 21st, when the Home Office advised that the first residents would be placed in the camp the next day. The first group of migrants was bused into the camp in the middle of the night. It was therefore all too clear that the Home Office had deliberately obfuscated and claimed no decision had been made when this was blatantly not so. As a result, the legal challenge could be adjudged to have been premature and invalid.

As the presiding KC Mr Justice Mold remarked, “Candour has not been discharged.” Presumably such lack of candour was a deliberate ploy on the part of the Home Office.

All the legal action was funded by local people, and an additional amount has been raised to fund a new submission for a judicial review. In addition, Ghani has requested that the Home Affairs Select Committee hold an inquiry into how the local Wealden District Council interacts with the Home Office and an overview of the suitability of this particular site given the cost entailed in upgrading it, the location and the enforced cessation of use by Armed Forces cadets.

It was notable that throughout the previous court hearing, zero mention was made of the economic effect on retail and property, the impact on local services, the loss of a valuable local amenity and the safety and wellbeing of local residents in Crowborough, these being beyond the remit of the claim. In the context of any potential objection from Natural England regarding the camp’s adjacent position to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – the Ashdown Forest – the welfare and protection of the small dark pointy tailed Dartford Warbler did get a mention. To no avail, however. Such is the power of the Home Office.

Recently we have learnt that the Government spent £3 million on preparing the camp for use. A significant amount of money to spend on accommodation, the use of which had not been confirmed. It’s hardly a saving either on the cost of housing migrants in hotels. On the contrary. That initial expenditure was of course only the beginning as, amongst other ongoing expenditure, Wealden District Council is paid for each migrant who is provided with a range of services.

One such service is a daily coach shuttle service between Crowborough and Crawley, 20-plus miles away. Local sharp eyes have noted that of those who are transported to Crawley on any given day, a number seem not to return – maybe not on that day and maybe not at all.

Many months ago when the news had just broken, Crowborough residents had an online interview with the Home Office’s Director of Asylum Accommodation. As was already known, the camp residents would be free to come and go. What was more surprising was the information that, if they absented themselves for over seven days, they would be considered to have removed themselves from the asylum system, i.e., Home Office control.

It may be assumed therefore that the camp residents are taken to Crawley – where there have recently been a significant number of migrants housed in hotels – on the basis that this enables them to meet with co-nationals and potentially make other arrangements. This may also include meeting with ‘handlers’ who have trafficked them on behalf of crime gangs – or they simply disappear into the black economy.

The sceptic might wonder if this is a deliberate ploy to shift people through the system, a system which apparently allows people to gain entrance to the UK on a false premise and then to disappear without any ongoing surveillance. The implications for ‘border control’ are clear. The peak crossing period of the Channel will begin in a matter of weeks. Given that 69,000 have entered ‘by irregular means’ since Labour took power, that figure will doubtless rise even higher.

Interesting to read that Alex Norris, the Border Security and Asylum Minister – who was reputedly less than communicative or transparent re Crowborough camp told the Telegraph last week:

A firm and fair approach to immigration does not mean hard-working taxpayers provide for individuals with refused human rights claims, many of whom are vile criminals.

Well yes indeed, but how are we supposed to know who the potential “vile criminals” are when we allow people, mostly men, of unknown provenance, culture, religion or political fealty to pour unheeded into the country? The fact that our Home Office doesn’t even bother to try and check whether some of them deserve asylum or who, what and where they are renders the whole system even more dysfunctional. A variety of politicians promote the idea that they will deport illegal migrants ASAP, but with a fair proportion disappearing soon after entry into the country, that will be a herculean task.

As with hard working taxpayers throughout the country, Crowborough residents are acutely aware of this profoundly flawed asylum system and who is paying for the result. As they learn of further migrants being placed in the camp, the level of frustration heightens. They do not accept the unacceptable, and a solid cohort of residents turn out week after week to march through the town and voice their disapproval. Twenty marches have now taken place and as long as the camp is occupied by migrants the marches are planned to continue.

Residents have marched through sun, wind, pouring rain and bitter cold from the entrance to the camp and through the High Street to the local Chapel Green every Sunday morning. The marches have been uniformly peaceful and pleasant with zero discord. Accompanied by amiable PCSOs, the long file of people wends its way past the local care home where elderly residents cluster at large windows to smile and wave. They are not disturbed by the large number of union and Sussex flags carried by the marchers; on the contrary.

Unfortunately, some of our residents are rendered marginally apoplectic by the sight of a quantity of our national or local flags. Would it be so in other countries? It is doubtful that such people have issues when participating in fêtes or fiestas abroad where the buildings are bedecked with national flags. Perhaps Free Palestine flags would be more palatable.

Even as every march is confirmed, social media is assailed by a predictable few who signal their virtue and #BeKind credentials by terming march participants ‘flag shaggers’, ‘gammons’ and the usual lexicon of insults. Adjoined to these are the local Green and Lib Dem councillors who have variously got children to make Valentine’s cards to give to the men in the camp and put together boxes of supplies for them. It is not known whether the cards were delivered – personally or otherwise – but in any case, goodness knows what the young males in the camp make of such strange behaviour. One of the overused refrains of the ‘refugees welcome’ brigade is that the migrants ‘are all human beings’. Well yes, quite so. But it doesn’t follow that the migrants in the camp should be treated as a sort of human petting zoo.

Some of the young men in the camp may be perfectly reasonable and will eventually settle and contribute to our society. Some may be genuine asylum seekers. However, as the Home Office Minister indicated, some of them may turn out to be vile criminals, and that’s just the problem.

Madeleine Gillies is a Crowborough resident with a career in language teaching in the UK and abroad.

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