PENALLY TRAINING CAMP’s suitability to house asylum seekers is being questioned from several quarters.

The camp – which is being ‘actively considered’ as a location to house up to 250 people – would be ‘effectively a prison camp’, it is claimed.

The Stand Up to Racism West Wales group said that the camp would be ‘a totally inappropriate home for vulnerable people who have fled from terror and suffering'.

A spokesperson for the group said: “Forcing people into military bases and camps to live a 'living hell’ is degrading, dangerous and potentially disastrous, as the appalling fire in the Moris camp, Lesbos has shown.

He added: “Stand up to Racism West Wales believes that there can be a positive solution to this crisis and that the community can unite around welcoming refugees, but not into a base that is effectively a prison camp.”

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed-Powys police, Dafydd Llywelyn, has called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to explain how the decision was reached to consider Penally as a potential location, and how the logistics would work.

“I am personally unable to fully understand the rationale for selecting the Penally site,”he said.

Mr Llywelyn felt that the site and the local community did not have the necessary infrastructure to support the needs of asylum seekers, who would not be detained once there.

Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood said the camp would be “a perverse setting for housing people who may have witnessed first-hand the horrors of conflict and fled out of desperation and fear for their lives.

“The accommodation appears to be wholly inadequate and would inevitably add to the distress of the individuals who may be forced to stay there.

Meanwhile,

Neil Hamilton, UKIP interim leader and MS for Mid and West Wales, has told the UK Government to ‘get a grip on illegal immigration and bogus asylum-seekers#, saying that Penally is about to ‘pay the price’.