Fury over ‘Trojan horse’ plans to house more than 1,000 male asylum seekers on ex-military base in bid to move them out of hotels

Anger has erupted in small villages in rural Oxfordshire over plans to dump more than 1,000 ‘single adult male’ asylum seekers at the Ministry of Defence; This proposal was likened to a ‘Trojan horse’ invasion by local residents.

Authorities want to fill the 1,250-bed military camp next to the villages of Piddington and Upper and Lower Arncott with migrants ‘aged 18 to 65’ as part of a plan to move them out of hotels.

The proposed camp near Bicester, known as ‘Site A’, has been objected to by the local district council, human rights groups and local MP Calum Miller.

The men will not be detained but will have to use an entry-exit system when leaving.

While the Home Office claims the site will be self-sufficient and largely self-sufficient to minimize the impact on local services, residents living nearby are angry at the plans.

Piddington resident Graham Rixon said: ‘This is completely inappropriate.

‘We are a village of 350 people; There’s another village down the road with even fewer people, and they’re going to throw 1,200 people in there.

‘Most of them will probably not be able to speak the language so there will be communication problems and as far as I know no help with the language has been provided.

The Home Office plans to flood the MoD site near Bicester with more than 1,000 ‘single adult male’ asylum seekers ‘aged 18 to 65’ in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside

‘We didn’t have any details about how it would work, so if it happens it will be messy; Insufficient preparation was made.

‘We’re supposed to live in democracy and this is just trying to bypass democracy and get everything done without anyone noticing.’

Mr. Miller said more than 7,000 residents had signed a petition against moving migrants to the camp. If approved, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) camp will be used to house 1,250 refugees for at least 10 years, with 270 expected to move there by the end of 2026.

Another local said: ‘This is a Trojan horse situation.

‘Unfortunately any decision the government takes to address this issue is undermined by other MPs.

‘Until the UK government starts working together on problems rather than trying to move up the political ladder and make money for themselves and their families, our country is doomed.’

Tim McNally, chairman of Piddington Parish Council, said villagers were stunned by last week’s announcement and felt ‘trapped’ by the prospect of more than 1,000 refugees being moved just miles from their homes.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t think there’s anything worse than feeling trapped.’

He added that ‘the value of our real estate fell by half overnight’ and that the residents of the village of 155 houses were considering selling to escape.

‘We have a very free and open village,’ he said. ‘I don’t remember the last time I locked my car or even my door, it was very hot last week and we had the windows wide open.

‘What did the government do and they announced through the BBC that the site would be for 1000 men and it would be on an entry-exit basis.

‘There’s no control there.’

Gwen McEwan described the prospect as ‘frightening’ and said: ‘Why should this village be punished? Why should we suffer?

‘There are people waiting for a house in this country, there are people waiting in line for bread, and aid is being distributed to these people.

‘We have two buses on weekdays at 10 and 12 o’clock; our children have to pay £300 per term to go to school by bus.

‘I’m not happy about this. They shouldn’t put them in a camp in a rural village.

‘If they come here I won’t pay council tax.’

Another resident, who has lived in the area since 1969, added: ‘This is just bad news. I feel sorry for these men who will be dumped here in the middle of nowhere.

‘We have almost no doctors here, schools are missing or full; So where does all this support come from?

Resident Graham Rixon said the picturesque village of Piddington in Oxfordshire, close to where the MOD base is located, had a small population of just 350 people.

Military base seen before D-Day in 1944, when it was the central staging area and command post for the UK’s largest amphibious invasion in history

‘This is a logistical nightmare. Why don’t we put them in a more humane place?’

One said: ‘The only country in the world that allows thousands of men to be swung around on boats and then housed on army bases stocked with massage chairs, gyms, portions of the best food and money in the back pocket.

‘How can we let this happen? That is, us as a whole nation, including the government.

‘There are massage chairs, billiard tables, food stalls, but our people cannot afford to buy food or live properly.’

One of them said: ‘The government has all this money for illegals but nothing for potholes. NHS. Education. Military etc.

‘There are so many government projects going down the drain. They need to put the money where it’s needed before putting it into hair-brained, thoughtless ideas.’

Piddington local Mike Newbury told the BBC: ‘I think the worrying thing is that we don’t have any official information.

‘We have no facilities here; ‘We don’t have a store, we don’t have a bus service so we won’t be able to offer them anything.’

Preparatory work has already begun at the Bicester site, according to a recent letter from the MoD, but Liberal Democrat MP Calum Miller said in a statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday that it was isolated and unsuitable.

Calum Miller, MP for Bicester and Woodstock, said: ‘This letter shows once again that the Government is making secret decisions in London and waiting for local communities to comply.

‘This shows that No10 and the Home Office have been working on these plans for some time, leaving service staff, their families, residents and even MOD Bicester in the dark.

‘The statement that work will begin immediately, with hundreds of beds ready by the end of the year, underlines how little say local people are given.

‘An agreement has not been reached yet on the establishment of an asylum centre.

Upper and Lower Arncott residents are also worried, describing the prospect of refugees arriving as a ‘Torjan horse situation’

The announcement also sparked criticism from Woodstock MP Calum Miller (pictured), who said more than 7,000 residents had signed his petition against the decision.

Previous plans to house up to 1,500 refugees at RAF Linton-on-Ouse were canceled in 2022 following protests from nearby households (pictured)

‘The government now needs to clarify exactly what it is doing, what planning route it intends to use to obtain permission and why the Bicester area has been asked to deal with the consequences of a decision made in London without any meaningful consultation or consent.’

The decision to use MoD Bicester comes after the government announced plans to use two more military grounds for asylum seekers in a bid to end the use of expensive hotels.

Apart from Bicester, ministers said they had also submitted planning applications to convert RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire into accommodation.

They also outlined plans to expand and expand use of existing facilities at Crowborough by 2030 and use of facilities at Wethersfield from 2027 onwards.

Overall, the plans will create close to 5,000 more beds.

Previous plans to house up to 1,500 refugees at RAF Linton-on-Ouse were canceled in 2022 following objections and legal challenges from the local council.

Earlier this month ministers announced the closure of a further 20 hotels housing migrants, including the controversial Bell Hotel in Epping.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu, a former resident of the Bell Hotel, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman just eight days after arriving on a small boat.

Labor said closing hotels would save taxpayers £170 million this financial year and claimed overall asylum costs had already been reduced by around £1 billion.

He has pledged to stop using shelter hotels until the next election.

A Home Office spokesman said the ministry had ‘engaged’ with local authorities ahead of the announcement and that ‘final decisions’ would not be taken without the ‘necessary regulations, assessments and approvals’.

The spokesperson added that discussion on the use of the site is at an early stage and remains subject to planning permission, feasibility assessments and due diligence, which will include engagement with local stakeholders and communities.

Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris said: ‘We promised to close all asylum hotels and return them to communities and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

‘A further twenty hotels have closed and hotel numbers have more than halved since the peak. Instead we are moving refugees to former military areas far away from the hotels the last Government left us.

‘This is a system that has been brought back under control and we will not stop until the job is done.’

The Home Office added that only 170 asylum hotels are now in use, down from a peak of 400, costing taxpayers £9 million a day.