'Art therapy', cricket, break dancing... and TWO GPs onsite: Inside Britain's biggest migrant camp where asylum seekers are called 'customers' and treated to the cushiest of lives - all paid for by YOU

Published: 01:00, 6 August 2026 | Updated: 01:00, 6 August 2026 Deep in rural Essex, we are amid historic thatched cottages, windmills and medieval churches. Golden bales of hay are stacked in the rolling fields in the blistering heat, birds of prey flying above. In this charmingly rustic setting, what activities shall we take part in today? A ramble through the quaint little villages taking in tea and cake at a local bookshop? Maybe thwack leather on willow with Little Bardfield village cricket club? Perhaps dance lessons in a church hall – or enjoy instruction in printing techniques at the museum dedicated to 18th-century artist Thomas Gainsborough? It is hard to choose from options that sound like they could be on offer either at an expensive summer camp provided by a public school or a tour of quintessential England for wealthy Americans. The surprising truth is that these activities, in this idyllic setting, are all provided for free. They are only available, however, if you are one of the residents at Britain’s largest migrant camp, Wethersfield, near Braintree, entirely occupied by adult men who have often arrived on dinghies days earlier. Last month, there was outrage when it emerged that these pursuits, and many more, are being provided for the population of 800 – due to rise to 1,245 – asylum- seeking residents of the former RAF base, funded by us taxpayers and charities. The controversial migrant camp at the former RAF base in Wethersfield, Essex, funded by taxpayers and charities They are largely possible thanks to a Home Office ‘Asylum Large Sites and Vessels’ grant of £50,000, funnelled through Braintree district council. Just over £14,000 was then spent on art and dance classes by Art Refuge, the Braintree branch of the Catholic Church’s St Vincent de Paul Society got £17,490 to run gardening, art and English lessons, £7,650 went on cricket coaching, and £10,750 on other sports. Ice cream giants Ben & Jerry’s UK Fund paid out for photography and rambling, while the Salvation Army’s Braintree church provides a base for the Care4Calais refugee charity. Last week, when the Daily Mail visited the beautiful Victorian church – a 20-minute free minibus ride from rural Wethersfield – local opposition to small-boat arrivals, let alone the freebies laid on for them, was clear. Migrants, some wearing Covid masks, one with his T-shirt pulled over his head, were queuing through a gazebo at the entrance to the church driveway. Meanwhile, around 20 protesters, several on mobility scooters, were ranged across the opposite side of the road, or right beside the Salvation Army gates, surrounded by St George’s Crosses and posters. ‘Stop the boats’, ‘Deport invaders’ and ‘Help the country’s needy before scrounging migrants’, were among the less inflammatory slogans sported. A YouTube activist who films in the thick of far-Right disorder nationwide had his camera in the migrants’ faces. It was quite a scene in an otherwise quiet town, amid the latest heatwave. But Reform Party councillor for both Essex county and Braintree district councils Nathan Robins, at 20 the youngest on both authorities, says local temperatures over the migrants housed at the camp since 2023 are rising regardless of the weather. Growing tensions come amid plans to increase numbers at the camp and after one of its residents appeared in court charged with assaulting a woman in a charity shop in the town. Migrants from the Wethersfield camp arrive in nearby Braintree, Essex, by mini bus ‘People were already worried about the use of the base – and now they’re fed up with the fact that the migrants are having cricket and martial arts classes,’ Mr Robins told the Daily Mail. ‘Local people are concerned about whether they’ve enough money to make it to the end of the month – and they’re seeing cash spent on people who arrived in the country illegally. The easiest solution is to detain migrants who arrive in dinghies – and deport them. The taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for art and sport classes for people here illegally.’ A very different approach is shown in the glowing accounts given by those providing classes for Wethersfield migrants, the majority of whom come from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria. The Art Refuge charity boasts of a ‘multi-artform collaboration’ with the Atelier Armonico performing arts company. Entitled Echoes of Home, the project ‘supports men housed in Wethersfield , weaving together music, dance and visual artmaking... fortnightly sessions are held in Braintree by professional dancers, musicians and artists or art therapists. ‘At a time when men face daily racist abuse in the towns surrounding Wethersfield camp, it feels ever more important for the men to enjoy an atmosphere of absorption, escape and play.’ The charity is perhaps unaware of very clear evidence of violent racism that happens not outside Wethersfield, but inside – and between migrants themselves. A little more of which later. Art Refuge prefers to talk about its ‘two dance practitioners’ teaching ‘dynamic, culturally rich dance styles particularly likely to resonate with young men, such as capoeira [the Afro-Brazilian martial art-cum-dance] and breakdance . . . often leading to joyful expression of cultural identity’. Slide projectors provide ‘overlaid images of mountains, sprawling cities, and strange plants’ around the dancing, and, ‘in one session, men traced around each other’s silhouettes on to a large canvas, then painted with bold colours’. Changing Lives Colchester, a community service, welcomed up to 24 ‘service users’ from the camp to play in a tournament and established a multinational Wethersfield FC team  And as a young migrant from Sudan – one of 222 Wethersfield men at the dance classes over the last documented year, 2024 – sang at one class, ‘a local volunteer who runs a music group in the camp responded with an improvisation on the guitar’. Art Refuge also organised a ramble with ‘tea, cake and conversations at a local bookshop’ for residents followed by ‘pizza in a pub’. Gainsborough’s House – the museum based in the celebrated painter’s family home, with adjoining modern gallery, posh coffee shop and gardens – is half an hour’s free minibus ride away in Sudbury, Suffolk, and also trumpeted for hosting Syrians, Afghans and Eritreans at its print workshop. Arty locals, charged £15 to see the gallery, can experiment with printing too. After they have paid a £125 joining fee and £20 a day, that is. Also bowling in is the Little Bardfield village cricket club – a 15-minute drive from the camp via Finchingfield, ‘Essex’s most picturesque village’ with its windmill, duck pond and thatched roofs – which has run weekly sessions for migrants. The club fondly remembers the first Wethersfield camp resident to don its team shirt – Mohammed Khan. He scored a century in an away game, and bowled out four opponents for just 34 runs before he was rehomed in Bristol. Football is also offered, with Changing Lives Colchester welcoming up to 24 ‘service users’ from the camp to play in a tournament, plus establishing a multinational Wethersfield FC team. Free courses in becoming a football coach are offered too. Such classes have been quietly provided at Wethersfield for years. Only now has the Daily Mail discovered their full extent – just when such expenditure is set to balloon as the Government plans to expand the use of military bases to house up to 45,000 small-boat migrants a year arriving at Dover from northern France. More than 40,000 made the Channel crossing last year, the second highest on record, and there are fears the problem is worsening, with a ‘mega-dinghy’ carrying 165 arriving last month. The picturesque village of Finchingfield, close to the RAF Wethersfield migrant camp Amid public unhappiness, Labour has accelerated attempts to shift small-boat migrants out of hotels perceived as ‘luxury’ and into former airfields and barracks. The alternative, also being quietly used as previously revealed by the Daily Mail, is to move them into ‘Houses of Multiple Occupation’ on residential streets. In June Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood declared she hoped to convert three more military bases, in North Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk, to house almost 4,000 migrants. That is on top of the former military camps at Crowborough in East Sussex, and here at Wethersfield. Yet while moving migrants into barracks sounds spartan and tough, in reality human rights laws set high standards. Two years ago a small group of migrants sued the Home Office for being ‘inhumanely’ housed at Wethersfield, winning their case. High Court judge Timothy Mould ruled that three anonymised migrants, dinghy arrivals from Afghanistan, Somalia and Eritrea, were accommodated unlawfully there because the camp did not meet their needs following trauma from past violence, trafficking or torture. He did so after being told that there were then 585 migrants at Wethersfield, largely in former RAF family accommodation. Details in the court documents about the workings of the camp are jaw-dropping. While the classes for migrants might be a lightning rod for criticism, the costs of these activities are but a tiny fraction of a total bill that calls into question the government notion that these camps are a saving on hotels. In 2024, working on site were four Home Office employees – and 141 staff made up of either top government migrant accommodation contractor Clearsprings Ready Homes, or its subcontractors. All funded by taxpayers. On the basis of an average £30,000 salary, this would amount to costs of more than £4million a year. Two years ago there were ‘three site managers (day), two site managers (night), 17 welfare officers (day), nine welfare officers (night), a facilities management co-ordinator, three team leaders, 40 security personnel (day), 25 security personnel (night), [security to keep intruders out, not migrants], 20 cleaning and laundry staff, two kitchen managers and 19 kitchen staff’. Every one, including the dinner ladies, had to be trained – ‘as a minimum’ – in matters including ‘infection prevention, modern slavery, mental health awareness, and equality, diversity and inclusion’. The camp medical centre was staffed 10am to 6pm by ‘at least two GPs, an advanced nurse practitioner, a general nurse, a mental health nurse, and two health care assistants’. Enough to put any village surgery to shame. Further welfare came from charities including the government-funded Migrant Help, with up to five staff on site, and the Salvation Army. A rriving migrants, described as ‘customers’, were shown their rooms – usually shared with no more than two others – some en-suite, and given a two-day induction programme, with leaflets in their own tongues plus translators on hand. ‘Customers’ were regularly asked, ‘Have there been any changes to your mental health you would like to discuss?’ And since the camp opened, ‘the range of activities’ has included ‘English language lessons, art classes, gym fitness classes, martial art classes, a Christian wellbeing spiritual group, a chess group, playing cards competitions and a gardening club’. The legal judgment went on: ‘There are also organised sports, including football, cricket, running, table tennis and basketball. The sporting facilities at Wethersfield include a fitness centre, a gymnasium, basketball, indoor football and cricket, and outdoor football, cricket and baseball pitches. ‘There is a large recreation room which contains pool tables, table tennis tables, a television, books, a collection of DVD players, a DVD library and games (including board games and gaming consoles). Residents are able to borrow DVD players to watch films or use the consoles in the dedicated gaming area.’ Three meals a day are served, there are juice dispensers around the camp, and migrants are ‘free to come and go’, with signing an ‘in and out book’ purely voluntary, and the ‘customers’ allowed to return at any time of night. Yet, despite all the free facilities, and with migrants never supposed to stay at Wethersfield for more than nine months, residents had complained there was ‘a dearth of purposeful activities’. Many compared it to a prison, a reminder of detention in warzones, with some complaining ‘traumatic memories are triggered by the sound of gunshots from a nearby clay pigeon shooting range’. And among those who successfully sued over being housed there, claiming they should have been placed somewhere less institutional – there were indeed claims of racism but overwhelmingly from fellow residents. It was claimed ‘there have been numerous outbreaks of racial violence’, with reported instances of Kurdish assailants attacking black Africans. Such tensions are said to have risen as more flock to Wethersfield – and with the population set to increase further they will surely only keep rising both in and outside the camp. For now, until someone stops the boats, the free arts therapy, sport classes and Brazilian dance lessons – not to mention the phenomenal costs of housing asylum seekers – only looks set to continue.