WETHERSFIELD, ENGLAND – JUNE 18: Accommodation units are pictured at Wethersfield migrant camp on June 18, 2026 in Wethersfield, United Kingdom. Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Centre is a former RAF airbase in Braintree, Essex that was repurposed by the Home Office to warehouse single adult male asylum seekers. Initially set to operate for a year, use of the site was extended until at least April 2027, despite opposition from local communities and human rights organisations. This month Labour by-election candidate Andy Burnham pledged to make “greater use” of migrant detention centres if he succeeds Keir Starmer as prime minister. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Credit: Getty
ASYLUM seekers at Britain’s biggest migrant camp are receiving dance therapy and cricket coaching funded by the taxpayer and charities.
Photography, art and rambling sessions are also laid on for hundreds of male migrants.
Asylum seekers at Britain’s biggest migrant camp are receiving dance therapy and cricket coaching funded by the taxpayer and charities Credit: Getty
It comes amid protests over the expansion of the Wethersfield Asylum Centre, Essex, from about 800 residents to around 1,245.
Tensions have increased recently after an asylum seeker at the Home Office site, on a former RAF airfield, appeared in court charged with assaulting a woman in a Braintree charity shop.
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We found Ben & Jerry’s UK Fund paid for photography, art and rambling sessions, while The Salvation Army allowed refugee charity Care4Calais to use its church in Braintree to hand out freebies.
Dance classes called Echoes of Home are being provided until 2028 by Art Refuge in conjunction with performing arts company Atelier Armonico.
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Some funding is from the National Lottery and Essex Community Foundation, which hands out grants to charities and voluntary groups.
More comes from the Asylum Large Sites and Vessels Grant — a Home Office fund for local authorities to ease pressure on services.
Braintree Council got £50,000 for local groups to provide activities for migrants.
This included £14,125 for Art Refuge, £17,490 for the Catholic Church’s St Vincent de Paul Society to put on English, art and gardening sessions, £7,650 for cricket coaching and £10,750 for sports sessions.
Since 2023, the council has also received more than £3.7million to provide 1,078 beds for asylum seekers.
Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, said: “The money, would be far better spent making life more tolerable for the thousands of elderly and vulnerable people in Braintree genuinely in need.”
A council spokesman said “there is no intention to provide any further funding” on top of the Home Office grant.
