AIBU to feel helpless about a large asylum camp in our village?

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My village has been chosen for a 1500 open asylum camp for single men. It will be an open camp (as the men haven't done anything wrong so aren't detained.)

The thing is the village only has 700 people and it is pretty isolated. it's about 10 miles to the nearest city and you can walk to another small village. There is a playpark, a pub and a primary school.

It has to go through planning, but the government have changed the planning laws so that they grant themselves planning and you can't see it as it is deemed sensitive. So they will just grant themselves planning and you can't oppose it without a judicial review--by which time it will probably be already open.

They want to reduce the number of people in hotels. But am AIBU to think that this puts the burden of sorting these issues out on one tiny community? Feels like we are collateral damage to be honest. The community will be outnumbered 2 to 1 and it feels too much. There is nothing for them to do or places to go. Also the fact that it is all single men put in one massive place with no money or means or anything to do is going to lead to problems

Apparently the camps cost £10 less a night than the hotels. But they don't count the set up costs which are astronomical (the one in Essex was £47 million to set up). So it seems like it's not not even cheaper than the problem it is trying to solve but much more expensive.

AIBU to feel a bit helpless? It seems so unfair but there is nothing I can do. We wouldn't be able to move from the village anyway as no one would buy a house here.

It's a really tricky one, I can see why you'd be concerned given the numbers. Put them in a village you'll piss fewer people off I guess and maybe that's a location less ripe for exploitation for drugs / gangs / trouble than you may get in a city. Just trying to understand the rationale.

Where we need the investment is in processing applications, so people either can move on, start work and contributing to the economy or can be deported if they don't have a case. Unfortunately many typically end up working in the UK's vast grey / black market or modern day slavery.

The Govt would do well to crack down on that too but in reality it will be unpopular with many to have to pay properly for car wash, nails done, restaurant delivery etc and the other industries where trafficking and slavery are rife.

Does the plan include any proposals for how these people will fill their days? That's what I don't understand about moving 1,500 people to the countryside. What are they actually going to do all day? In a city they could be absorbed into existing volunteering opportunities or cash in hand work, places of worship, nightclasses at the local college, sports clubs, whatever.
I do think it's probably harder that they're all men. The RAF men who lived there before had jobs and a purpose. There must have been some families there too? These guys are being dropped in with no knowledge of anything.

Someone somewhere must have researched and come up with a statistic about how many new people a place can absorb at one time. 10%, 15%, I don't know. But surely not 200%?

I agree, I just mean it’s interesting how everyone can admit it when it’s about immigrants.

who is saying that?? certainly not me

No sorry op that was in response to a now deleted comment

I have no issue abiding by the Magna Carta on the proviso that we can bring back stocks and pillory, mutilation, and execution by way of deterrents rather than relying on good nature or a fence.

I think you should remain focussed on lack of facilities/transport/opportunities to integrate.

and not get into other “contentious” issues.

Perhaps the camp will, or should provide facilities within the facility. That is what i would focus on.

don't get me wrong there's probably a few wrong uns in the existing village. I mean that's human nature isn't it? But you kind of know who they are and know who to avoid.

Totally agree. In cities diverse groups will have access to faith-based resources and community networks. They can work on their English or other studies.

Assuming at least some of the asylum claimants are genuine (whether you'd say most or not depends on your politics I guess... I tend to think people don't go through all the hassle and danger of crossing continents just for the bants but I know others disagree) they will also be survivors of really traumatic experiences and yes, people with PTSD can be dangerous and unpredictable.

There's similar in Crowborough, which I think is Sussex. Was on 5 News the other day.

The Magna Carta also doesn't allow those without a trial either.

It kind of sounds like you want to live in Putin's Russia?

I don't see why they need to bundle hundreds of them all together in encampments..as you say they've done nothing wrong.

So why not distribute them more evenly so they're in HMOs or something so it doesn't make people like you feel as if the whole community will be dominated by them.

We have a migrant hotel round the corner and I've never noticed any issues or even really any difference. Other than you used to get busses of Germans and Americans pulling up there. But that's because we're in the middle of a massive city.

I think a lot of them work as food couriers. And we do use them so if anything it could be seen as being more convenient.

It's also kind of cruel to both you and them to have them so far away from a town or city as inevitably they'll be bored and just lingering round the village.

Not that they shouldn't if they live there, but if they're bored they might be more likely to cause ASB or just be a bit disruptive. Same as young men from any culture with no money and nothing to do.

Why are they here? There are no jobs. How many are there going to be ultimately? 500k? 50million? 150million? The government are bringing these people in deliberately. This is going to destroy the country. I wonder how much it's all costing.

It's not like its going to be the same people here all the time and they could get to know people and get settled. The scale of it and the fact it will be a constantly changing population will mean there can't even be any meaningful relationships made. There was a point where they were going to move about twenty refugee families in and I think people felt quite positive as the kids would go to the school and they could get settled and become part of the community. This is like a massive industrial operation. and the base is right in the middle of the village

Should have left them in the cities with us as we are just generally more tolerant than country village types. But hey the right wing groups objected to that. So what do you suggest?

Rwanda was the best option, following Australia’s lead.

Flown offshore until assessed.

But Starmer then dropped that idea.

I feel for you OP that is worrying the sheer numbers.

How do we remand people in custody pending their trial then?

Hmm. DH also volunteered with Farsi-speaking asylum seekers - he is Iranian - and came to the opposite conclusion. He saw some rather interesting takes on Christianity and homosexuality as routes to ILR, and none of the men concerned would have been able to migrate to the UK on a skilled visa basis, as DH did. I’m afraid the experience has rather hardened his previously centrist views and he means to vote Reform in the GE (if we’re allowed one). DH is Muslim and brown, but has rather old-fashioned views about dishonesty in people of any colour or religion. He’s no fan of the Iranian regime either - which was not universally true of everyone he met in the UK who was supposedly fleeing from it.

OP is obviously not being unreasonable, but (to the extent Labour has any supporters left) they are probably not to be found in rural areas. So it’s politically expedient for the current shithouse government. But it stinks, and obviously a totally undemocratic process.

Do you really believe that? That the government is shipping in illegal immigrants to mess with us? And if so, is it just Labour or was it the tories too? And if it's all governments... what do they have to gain from this cross-party conspiracy?

Because people don’t want them in HMOs or hotels either.

I also used to live very close to an asylum hotel, and I never had any issues from them. I didn’t even realise that’s what it was for a while. But I appreciate it wasn’t the numbers that OP was talking about, either in absolutes or as a percentage (I’m not in a big city, but a reasonably big town).

I agree with this. Put the 50 million into processing claims and then we don't need to support people and house them. They either start supporting themselves or get their claim denied.

I have lived in the middle east for most of my life. It is impossible to describe how alien UK culture is to Arab and MENA men. It is as alien to us as wearing a vest top in public is to them generally. Nobody is wrong or right but you simply cannot expe t people who are not assimilated in an alien culture to just pop over and feel comfortable. Even in 2026 I have been asked by male doctors how many years am I married and how many children as a measure of my fertility and general health. I always tell them I had way more sex before I was married so its probably better to ultrasound my ovaries than depend on nonsense theories.

Yanbu. It has been happening all over Ireland too, alongside HMO’s popping up every time a house goes up for sale. Europe saving the world from persecution at the expense of the people.
My parents died a couple of years ago, we refused to sell their house to anyone but a family.
I have three neighbours move out since 2023, house bought by pension fund investors from Canada, now they’re HMO’s to get the highest rent possible, the community doesn’t come into it.

And that's ultimately the goal isn't it. If they spent more on processing they would save so much in the cost of feeding and watering people whilst they wait years.

They could have the men on curfew.

The locals are now going to self impose a curfew. I certainly would not be walking about on my own, and girls and boys will have to be chaperoned. Even men and teen boys are not safe. The elderly will be scared to leave their homes, and vulnerable people will feel very worried even in their houses.

I think this is traitorous.

Plenty people are becoming extremely rich because of the business of migration. Follow the money.