Unearthed planning documents have revealed that the leftist British government has considered housing over 3,500 supposed asylum seekers just outside a village of only 350 people.
The longf-running controversy surrounding the planned migrant camp at the former military site outside of the leafy village of Piddington in Oxfordshire grew considerably this week after it was revealed that the government was considering placing over twice as many military-age males in the area as previously known.
While there was outrage over plans to place 1,256 migrants at the ex-Ministry of Defence site, a local resident has discovered publicly available documents detailing the initial “proposed scheme” to provide “accommodation for 3,510 service users” at the site. This would represent nearly ten times the population of the nearby village.
Responding to the document in comments made to The Express, Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said: “Villagers’ lives will be ruined overnight. Ministers continue to conceal the true scale of what is coming, and the numbers keep rising before a single migrant has even arrived.
“When I visited Piddington, a mother told me she feels forced to take self-defence classes with her daughter, fathers told me they are worried sick about how best to protect their families, all while Burnham gives invading men a police escort.
“The Labour Government is carrying on the Tories’ shameful legacy of failing to protect British citizens and keep our communities safe.
“Under a Reform UK Government, Operation Fortress will stop small boats from reaching our shores, Operation Justice will ensure those here illegally are detained and deported, and communities like Piddington will be protected.”
The government has claimed that it is necessary to use former MoD sites such as the one outside of Piddington to end the use of hotels as accommodation for alleged asylum seekers, a scheme brought in by the former Tory government which has also seen widespread pushback from local communities.
In contrast to the planned migrant camps in places like Oxfordshire, Reform UK has said that it would forge partnerships with third party countries to send migrants and have their asylum claims processed offshore, as is currently being considered by fellow European nations like Denmark and Italy.
The asylum system has come under heavy scrutiny over the past week, with a whistleblower identified as a Home Office official with years of experience in assessing and deciding on asylum cases claiming that just one in one hundred asylum claims are actually genuine.
On top of the apparently frequent dubious claims made by asylum seekers, illegal migrants who seek refugee status often arrive in Britain after having passed through numerous safe and prosperous countries in Europe, where by rights they should make their claim rather than shopping for their preferred destination.
Such is the animus towards housing potentially thousands of “single adult males” at the planned camp outside Piddington that the villagers voted in favour of holding a referendum on officially seceding from the United Kingdom in protest.
Piddington Parish Council leader Tim McNally has even suggested that they might even potentially petition to become the 51st state of America should the referendum succeed. The village has even reached out to President Trump himself through “backchannel connections”, said McNally to The Sun, praising the President for being a leader in border control, and saying every man and woman should be entitled to live in a “controlled and safe situation”.
He went on: “We should not have to worry about what are we allowing into our country. He’s doing that as his primary statement, we should be doing the same because of the impact it’s now making. We can see it, statistics are out there, the crime element is out there. But they’re trying to hide it, they don’t want us to see the data. But it’s all out there for Europe, Europe is publishing this data in black and white. Why are we not allowed to have the same?”.
While the Home Office has not withdrawn the documents initially suggesting over 3,500 could be placed at the camp, a spokesman said that the estimate was “outdated” and that the government is only planning to accommodate up to 1,256 asylum seekers.