Asylum seekers housed at a military barracks in East Sussex will have access to an on-site general practitioner, as police prepare for potential weekend protests following their late-night arrival.

The Home Office has confirmed that 27 individuals, labeled as ‘illegal migrants,’ were transported to Crowborough Army Camp, arriving under police supervision at 3:30 a.m.

The facility is designed to accommodate over 500 single adult men. While residing there, they will have the freedom to move in and out of the camp as they wish.

Recently, images have surfaced showing demonstrators on Crowborough’s High Street, waving England and Union Jack flags.

According to the Home Office, the asylum seekers will have a dedicated GP within the barracks, with only those needing further medical attention being referred to services outside.

This arrangement aims to lessen the burden on local general practitioners, although it might not sit well with nearby residents who often face difficulties securing their own appointments.

Police are bracing for hundreds of anti-migrant demonstrators to descend on Crowborough this weekend. 

Meanwhile, in a new development today, a councillor claimed parents are pulling their children out of school as a bus route used by the pupils shares a stop with the base. 

Photos show protesters gathered on Crowborough’s High Street last night, holding England and Union Jack flags

An aerial view of the former military barracks, with a heavy police presence in the area 

A 16-seater mini van driven into a migrant camp in Crowborough in the early hours of yesterday morning 

Andrew Wilson, who represents Crowborough East, said that because the asylum seekers will each be housed at the site for between 70 to 90 days at a time, that amounts to almost 2,800 unknown individuals passing through the town in a 12-month period. 

He said that with each man whose background is not known, that ‘increases the risk to local residents’.

Mr Wilson told Talk TV: ‘There is a bus stop outside the camp that is used for local school children to get to school in Uckfield. 

‘People will potentially have to make changes to the way they do things. Mothers are perhaps going to be driving their children to school. 

‘I’ve heard of several people who are withdrawing their children from school.’ 

Residents in Crowborough have strongly opposed turning the site into Home Office housing, expressing fears about the safety of women and children in the wake of a series of sex attacks by asylum seekers across the country. 

Karen Creed, 62, said: ‘My main concern is the fact that it’s all men. It’s not families.

‘We don’t know the background of any of them. I want to feel free to walk about in the town in which I live. It feels like the Government is playing with my freedom.’

‘We all feel totally hoodwinked. They brought people down here in the wee small hours, not expecting anybody to see.’

Police are bracing for hundreds of anti-migrant demonstrators to descend on the town this weekend

Beds at the former army training camp 

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called it ‘another day of shame’ for Labour.

‘We have seen hundreds of crimes committed by illegal immigrants in asylum accommodation, including many rapes, sexual assaults and even murder,’ he said.

‘Now the women and children of Crowborough will be exposed to those risks too.

‘Illegal immigrants are costing £4billion a year to house and they pose a threat to local communities up and down the country.

‘If Labour had allowed the Rwanda scheme to start, these illegal immigrants would be in Rwanda, not Crowborough – but Keir Starmer was too weak to carry out the plan.’ 

The Tory frontbencher added: ‘The Government tried to hide what they were doing in Crowborough by smuggling illegal immigrants into the site under cover of darkness.’

Local MP Nusrat Ghani accused the Home Office of a ‘shameful lack of transparency’.

Opponents of the centre – the first large-scale site opened under Labour – have been considering their own legal action against the Home Office.

Chair of the campaign group Crowborough Shield, Kim Bailey, said it was hoping to secure an injunction, and criticised the Home Office for an ‘information vacuum’ that had created ‘a lot of fear’ in the town of 23,000 residents.

‘Of course parents are going to worry. Every day you are seeing reports of a different crime,’ Mrs Bailey said.

‘The community opened their arms to Ukrainian families and families from Afghanistan in 2021.

‘This community is not unwelcoming, but this is not right: 540 men with nothing to do, on the edge of a town.’ 

The coach was assisted by a police escort at 3.28am yesterday morning 

Police officers stand outside Crowborough Training Camp yesterday after the first group of migrants arrived 

Labour is planning to open further large sites for migrants as part of its pledge to shut down asylum hotels by 2029.

Latest official figures show the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels increased by 13 per cent to 36,273 at the end of September.

Home Secretary Ms Mahmood said: ‘Crowborough is just the start.

‘I will bring forward site after site until every asylum hotel is closed and returned to local communities.

‘I will not rest until order and control to our borders is restored.’

She added: ‘Illegal migration has been placing immense pressure on communities.

‘That is why we are removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britain, closing asylum hotels that are blighting communities.’

The Home Office issued the first images from inside the former barracks, showing basic levels of accommodation including dormitory rooms.