Hashem* arrived in the UK last year filled with hope. “I thought this is the country where I’m going to be free and start my new life without any stress,” he says. The 32-year-old Iranian fled his home country after he converted from Islam to Christianity, which meant he faced “punishment and even the death sentence”. But his happiness upon arriving quickly evaporated when he was moved into the now notorious Napier Barracks in September, along with 400 other asylum seekers. “I realised that this country is not as welcoming as it seemed to be,” he says.
Napier, a former military barracks on the Kent coast, was repurposed last year as accommodation for migrants claiming asylum. It hit the headlines when COVID-19 broke out in January, after months of warnings about the site’s unsuitability. Concerns about the physical and mental wellbeing of the asylum seekers during the pandemic led to most being eventually moved out, including Hashem, and a similar site at Penally in Wales being closed down.
But The Guardian reports this week that more are to be sent to Napier barracks this month – as Hashem told me he was informed by staff during his stay.
