Pressure on Priti Patel to shut Kent asylum barracks as 120 ‘test positive for Covid-19’

Fears of a health crisis at a military barracks housing asylum seekers in Kent have escalated after 120 people are believed to have tested positive for Covid-19.

Around 400 are living at Napier Barracks in Folkestone where a virus outbreak has added to concerns over conditions.

Residents, many of whom have crossed the English Channel in small boats, have described it as “unbearable” and say social distancing is impossible.

There have been reports of suicide attempts.

Earlier this month, many residents went on hunger strike in protest at conditions which reportedly include 34 sharing one shower.

The controversial facility features barbed-wire topped fences and hosted Canadian troops in the Second World War.

A petition to shut down the site, along with a similar facility at a barracks in Wales, has amassed more than 10,000 signatures.

The Home Office, which commandeered the site last year, insists the accommodation in Kent is “safe, suitable, and Covid-compliant”.

An open letter to “all British citizens” from an asylum seeker living at Napier Barracks and reportedly signed by more than 200 other residents has been shared by refugee charity Choose Love.

The letter calls out Home Secretary Priti Patel and immigration minister Chris Philp over conditions at the site.

It says: “We came to this country to save our lives. Lives which were mostly in danger because of war and prosecution.