'We felt like we were animals': asylum seekers describe life in UK barracks

Current and former residents of Napier and Penally barracks tell of poor conditions and lack of support

Hasan Hamed almost didn’t make it to the UK. Trembling, he couldn’t bring himself to step into the boat in Calais, having paid £3,000 to make the crossing. The smuggler told him: “Either get in now or you lose your money.”

Hamed, 32, from Yemen, was dealing with multiple traumas by that point. He had been jailed and tortured by Houthi fighters in his home country after he refused their efforts to forcibly conscript him. “The Houthis imprisoned me naked for one week and deprived me of sleep,” he said, describing various tortures he was put through, including having to sleep under a blanket smeared with excrement and threatened with rape.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/02/we-felt-like-we-were-animals-asylum-seekers-describe-life-in-uk-barracks

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