The flags and banners outside RAF Barnham convey the strength of local feeling.

“No illegals now or ever” reads one. “Stop the boats. Stop the problem” and “Unvetted foreign men: we are afraid to walk our streets at night” on others outside the site sold off by the Ministry of Defence in the 1960s.

This rural community in Suffolk has become the latest focal point of a problem that won’t go away: where to put thousands of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats.

In June, the Government confirmed it had earmarked this ex-RAF site to house as many as 1,250 single male asylum seekers in portacabins and existing accommodation blocks.

Two other bases, MoD Bicester in Oxfordshire, and MoD Linton-On-Ouse in North Yorkshire, are also being considered by the Home Office.

In a gazebo at a makeshift protest base outside the military site is Clinton Warner, 37, who lives and runs a used car business opposite.

“There is a general concern that you’re taking potentially 1,300 people, and you’re going to put them there. You have no control of them. You’re going to allow them to wander around local towns,” he told The i Paper.

“You have Mildenhall, Lakeneath air bases, with all of their personnel either situated in houses around them. It is a security threat.”

As he talks, cars honk their horns in support. Since June, there have been weekly peaceful protests outside RAF Barnham against the plan.

But Warner feels the protesters have been unfairly depicted in the media, and describes how one person who called for all foreigners to be sent home “has not been given a warm welcome” since.

Local tensions

Barnham is a couple of miles from the Norfolk town of Thetford, the scene of violent disorder last month, which saw anti-migrant crowds target homes thought to be housing asylum seekers.

Occupants were forced to flee, with two police officers injured and 19 arrests made during three nights of disturbances.

A month on, dried egg yolk still smears the windows of one home. A glass pane smashed by a missile has not yet been fixed.

One local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, watched the disturbances outside her home until about 2am and said the men forced to leave the house “were never any problem”.

“One of the protesters turned up, and he had his hood up, and I went: ‘I actually feel more scared of him. Because I can see their faces when they come out’. They don’t hide them,” she said.

She added that she didn’t have a problem with asylum seekers, but as a council taxpayer in neighbouring Norfolk, she is “not happy” of the potential cost to Thetford of housing migrants in Barnham.

Most of those arriving on boats are economic migrants, she believes.

“And if you were in their position in their country, what would you do? You would do the same. You wouldn’t send your family. You send your eldest lad who’s workable and send money back,” she said.

However, Wayne Berry, 50, who lives on the same road, branded the RAF Barnham plan “disgusting”: “Undocumented men, turning up, and so close to town. I wouldn’t be happy about it.”

In the village of Barnham, a meeting is planned on Tuesday to discuss the development, which could triple the size of the local population of around 600.

Toby Lucken, 29, said he would have “no issue” with RAF Barnham being used to house asylum seekers if the Government “did a good job”, and described the disturbances in Thetford last month as “disgusting”.

“I just thought it was awful. It’s horrible. They are treating people like they’re not people,” he added.

“If they’ve got the issue they should be taking it to the people in charge, not individuals. They’re terrorising individual people.”

But John Smith, 74, is vehemently opposed to the base being used as asylum accommodation, citing theft as one concern.

“Most of them are illegal immigrants. They’ll be wandering all over the place,” he said.

One local dog walker, 29, said she would be worried about going out on her own at night and said the plan has “frightened a lot of people”.

“It’s the fact you don’t know their history. That’s the scary part. There’s no documentation. There’s nothing to prove if they’ve had any previous records,” she said.

The Government has committed to ending the use of asylum hotels during the current Parliament, with the numbers in use down from 213 in July 2024 to fewer than 160, and is now looking to expand the use of ex-military bases.

If given the green light, RAF Barnham would be used for at least 10 years, as part of plans to house 3,750 asylum seekers across three new military sites.

The Goverment is also looking to extend the use of two existing camp – at Crowborough in Sussex until 2030 and RAF Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027.

Back at the protest camp, Charles Day, a US Air Force veteran, recalls how he was based at Wethersfield when he arrived in the UK in 1969 and believes using the site to house hundreds of asylum seekers is “terrible” and believes successive leaders have failed the country over the last decade.

The Home Office has submitted an Urgent Crown Development application to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for the use of RAF Barnham as migrant housing.

These applications for proposed developments that the Government considers are of national importance override local planning laws.

Politicians from different sides of the spectrum are attempting to block the Government’s proposals for RAF Barnham, which is used for specialist training by officers from Suffolk and Norfolk constabularies.

West Suffolk Council Leader Cllr Cliff Waterman, a Labour councillor who heads a coalition administration, has written to ministers stating the development at RAF Barnham would violate regulations protecting endangered birds nesting near the site.

“We are confident that we can stop it, or it must be stopped, because of the law. And this law is above planning law,” he said.

“So before you can even consider a planning application, you have to be clear that you’ve passed the test of this law, which we are confident would not be possible.”

Scott Hussey, a Reform councillor at Norfolk County Council, said at a recent meeting that Home Office officials refused to offer a guaranteed cap on the numbers of migrants to be accommodated at the camp at any one time.

“These undocumented men will be free to come and go from the camp as they please and this is what worries many people in the village of Barnham and the nearby town of Thetford. They are understandably angry and fearful,” he said.

“Any significant development – an announcement from the Home Office that the camp has been approved for use, or the start of arrivals – is going to be a huge potential flashpoint.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The concerns of communities are central to our immigration reforms. That is why we are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into alternative accommodation, including former military sites.

“We are working to fairly house asylum seekers across the country, engaging with local authorities to reduce the impact on communities.”