Torture survivors may have been placed at Sussex asylum camp unlawfully, documentary reveals

Asylum seekers housed at a former military training camp in East Sussex have been subjected to inadequate welfare checks, and survivors of torture may have been placed at the site unlawfully, an undercover documentary for ITV has revealed.

For the programme Inside The Asylum Camp, an ITV reporter took a job as a welfare officer at Crowborough and covertly filmed inside the facility. Large-scale accommodation sites of this kind are central to the government's plan to end the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers, but the documentary claims that weak screening and welfare checks are having serious consequences for some residents.

In May, the high court ruled that a Home Office policy change forcing torture survivors to share rooms was unlawful. Accommodation at Crowborough consists of large dormitories. The undercover reporter said he had identified four or five survivors of torture who should not have been sent to the military camp.

The Crowborough site is run by Clearsprings Ready Homes, which according to its latest accounts is generating millions of pounds in income every day from its asylum accommodation contracts. Its boss, Graham King, has become the first asylum accommodation billionaire.

Clearsprings welfare officers are supposed to carry out two comprehensive welfare checks each month. The footage appears to show staff admitting to cutting corners and not asking asylum seekers all the questions they are required to ask. On one occasion, a welfare officer is filmed telling the undercover reporter "you don't need to go in too deep".

Staff also appear to admit falling behind on the 1,000 welfare checks they are meant to complete each month, saying: "We're so fucked."

Concerns about an asylum seeker can be flagged on their file, but a welfare officer is filmed telling the reporter "those flags mean nothing" and that "nobody ever looks at them again". When asked whether some asylum seekers fall through the net because of the brief checks carried out, the welfare officer replies: "Oh, absolutely."

Louise Calvey, executive director of the charity Asylum Matters, which campaigns for asylum seekers to be accommodated in communities rather than camps, said the reports of torture survivors being housed on military barracks were appalling. "Brave survivors endure appalling experiences arriving to a country where they thought they'd be safe," she said, adding that people being held in isolation for prolonged periods without sufficient water showed "just how far we have fallen as a country". She said the failures of government contractors demonstrated "how much our system dehumanises refugees" and called for an urgent review of the camps, describing them as "a choice to punish people for having the audacity to exercise their lawful right to seek asylum here".

The Home Office decision to accommodate asylum seekers at Crowborough and at Wethersfield in Essex, another former military site, has triggered opposition from local residents, while plans to use three other sites at Bicester, Barnham and Linton-on-Ouse have caused a similar outcry, mostly over fears that asylum seekers could drive a rise in violent crime. However, police have recorded very low levels of even minor crime among asylum seekers at the two camps.

The Home Office and Clearsprings have been approached for comment.