LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th January, 2021) UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Friday that the damage and destruction caused by asylum seekers at a refugee camp in southeast England "is not only appalling but deeply offensive" to the UK taxpayers who are providing the accommodation.
"This type of action will not be tolerated and the Home Office will support the police to take robust action against those vandalising property, threatening staff and putting lives at risk," Patel said in a statement.
Fire broke out on Friday afternoon at Napier barracks, a disused army facility in Folkestone, Kent, where hundreds of refugees are being held while their asylum request is being processed by immigration authorities.
Care4Calais charity reported that some refugees set fire to the barracks after they were ordered to self-isolate, following a COVID-19 outbreak in the camp.
"They each received an impersonal letter from Clearsprings, the accommodation provider, saying they would be split into new 'bubbles' and would need to self isolate for a further ten days," the organization said in a press release.
According to UK media outlets, roughly 100 asylum seekers at the barracks who tested negative for the disease have been transferred to hotels to self-isolate.
One of the refugees housed at the camp told Sputnik on January 12 that almost all residents had gone on hunger strike in protest against the living conditions and the lack of COVID-safe measures being taken at the barracks.
In her statement, the Home Minister said it was an insult to say that the site was not good enough to accommodate asylum seekers, noting that it had previously been used by "our brave soldiers and army personnel."
