OVER 40 groups demanded the government close the “inhumane” and “prison-like” mass asylum centres on former military sites, after it was reported that people were denied basic necessities and legal advice.

Campaigners slammed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood today for allowing asylum-seekers to be housed in the two current former military sites in East Sussex and Essex.

In an open letter to Ms Mahmood, they called for the immediate closure of detention centres in Crowborough and Wethersfield, where they said survivors of torture and trafficking have been cramped in “prison-like” conditions.

They accused her department of failing in its statutory and moral duty to protect people who have come to this country to seek safety, including under the Modern Slavery Act.

The Home Office recently announced it would seek to extend their use despite reports about poor conditions and proposed new sites in Oxford, Suffolk and North Yorkshire.

Their letter followed a visit from lawyers with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) who met with a number of residents in the two sites, offering them legal advice and support.

Lawyers found the camps were housing survivors of torture and trafficking together “as many as 16 to a room” and people being “deliberately segregated and closed off from society.”

Conditions constitute a failure by the Home Office to identify and support survivors of torture and trafficking, poor or non-existent medical treatment and healthcare, and “a lack of access to legal advice and support.”

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK and Care4Calais have also been supporting residents in the camps.

Their letter comes as the government indicated today it could threaten Pakistan with visa restrictions unless it takes back grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed.