Mothers led chants of “Starmer out” during a rally on Sunday against plans to house 540 single male asylum seekers at a disused army camp on the edge of a rural town.
An estimated 2,000 people joined the protest against the government’s plans for migrant accommodation in Crowborough, East Sussex.
Marchers carried Union Jacks and St George’s crosses along with handwritten placards, bearing slogans including “Protect Us. Protect our children”, and “Our children’s freedom gone, so they can have theirs”.
The town, which has a population of 21,000, is in an area of outstanding national beauty and borders Ashdown Forest, which was AA Milne’s inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood.
Some residents said they planned to install panic alarms
EDDIE MITCHELL
At a heated public meeting on Thursday, private security guards had to step in when local politicians were chased out of the community centre hall.
Some residents say that they are already installing panic alarms in their homes, while others have raised concerns about how asylum seekers will be able to register with local GPs when people living in the town already struggle to book appointments.
Kim Bailey, the chairwoman of Crowborough Shield, a grassroots organisation formed to challenge Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said: “It’s absurd what they are doing. Vulnerable men from war-torn countries, to Crowborough?
“You have the police firearms training centre and a public shooting range right there. People with PTSD who will be hearing gunshots all the time will be triggered by it and they are going to try to escape that environment.
“These are unvetted men — we don’t know who they are. This is a very rural area, surrounded by trees and forest.
“If crime were to happen, they are going to go unheard.”
Locals believed the camp itself was not safe, she added.
Kim Bailey, who helped to organise the protests
EDDIE MITCHELL
Mahmood has said she plans to announce reforms to the asylum system including the removal of the right to housing and weekly allowances, and a 20-year wait to apply for permanent settlement. However, Bailey was dismissive of the reports.
“Twenty years sounds reasonable, but it won’t make any difference to our current situation,” she said. “It won’t make any difference to what happens here.”
The Crowborough Shield campaign has raised more than £12,000 to fund legal action against the Home Office’s plans.
Wealden district council, which is controlled by an alliance of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors, has blamed the Home Office for an “information vacuum” that fuelled community tension and threats against local politicians.
The Home Office apologised for the handling of its plans to use the barracks for 12 months but says that moving asylum seekers to military sites is part of the government pledge to end the controversial use of hotels before the next election.
Bailey said: “We do not believe them. We know full well it is not going to be for only 12 months. Why are they spending millions on it if it’s only going to be there for 12 months?”
Crowborough, and the Cameron Barracks in Inverness, were the first military sites to be identified to accommodate a total of 900 asylum seekers, The Times revealed last month.
The Home Office says that all residents will undergo mandatory security checks and that “as part of their induction process, clear expectations are set out to asylum seekers staying at the site about their expected behaviour while on and off the site”.
Kerrie Knight, an organiser of the Pink Ladies campaign, which protests against migrants being accommodated in hotels, said: “This is not about race or religion, this is about love. This is about risk and safety, this is about common sense.”