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Home Office’s PR strategy of putting asylum-seekers at risk
RAOUL WALAWALKER shines a light on a deliberate government policy of cruelty and bluster at the Penally and Napier camps
Emergency services attend to the fire at Napier barracks in Folkestone, on Friday January 29

WITH 300 asylum-seekers told to go into lockdown for 10 days — despite over a third having coronavirus and no evidence of mass testing; sharing cramped, communal sleeping and eating space indefinitely in a long-disused army barracks — the chance of some sort of “unrest” had been high.

After weeks of peaceful protests — limited due to lockdown constraints — there was a fire on January 29 and a window got smashed. Despite the reports in The Sun, the police deny evidence of “rioting.”

Charities that have visited the residents weren’t surprised at what looked like reactions of panic and shock among some — described already as being “in a bad way” — after being told by the contractor that while some were being relocated, the rest were to remain “in bubbles” and would need to self-isolate for a further 10 days.

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