It was
the most welcoming town in Britain. Why has Crowborough become so divided?
In 2022,
they opened their arms to Ukrainian refugees. But this year, the arrival of
more than 300 asylum seekers has split the community. Can the rift be healed?
Diane Taylor
Thu 1 Oct
2026 06.00 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/01/crowborough-divided-immigration-asylum-seekers
It’s
Sunday morning and in the East Sussex town of
Crowborough a few dozen anti-migrant activists are waving union jacks outside a
travel agent. Their sound system is blasting out a song about “lefty lemons”.
A few
yards away, a similar number of protesters are supporting the asylum seekers
being housed at a nearby military camp. Their signs read “Humanity has no
borders” and “Civilisation fails when hatred prevails”; they’re playing
classics about love and peace by Bob Marley, the Beatles and Aretha Franklin.
The
arrival of more than 300 asylum seekers in Crowborough
Training Camp in early 2026 has split this town of 22,000 people. Depending
on who you speak to, the asylum seekers, who are all men, are either a
marauding threat to women and girls, or the loveliest human beings you could
wish to meet. There is one thing that unites Crowborough, however: everyone
criticises the Home Office for its failure to consult them about its plans.
“It’s
shocking to see Home
Office incompetence up close,” says Rachel Millward, deputy leader of the
Green party, and leader of Wealden district council, which covers Crowborough.
“Failing to inform, never mind consult, local authorities and residents has
created a communications vacuum, and a petri dish for an organised, well-funded
far-right hate campaign.”
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image in fullscreen
Holly
Jeffery … ‘I’ve been targeted on Facebook.’ Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Holly
Jeffery, 36, has come out to support the asylum seekers. She is wearing
earrings shaped like lemon slices, saying she has decided to “lean into” the
song about her and others she is standing alongside. The full chorus is: “Lefty
lemons haven’t got a clue, standing on street corners with their fellow crew,
always on the left, none of them are right.”
While the
groups are within touching distance, they are separated by a path that leads to
the Waitrose car park. A few police officers form a relaxed human buffer.
They
haven’t done anything wrong so far – but should we have to wait for that to
happen?
Since the
first asylum seekers arrived, there has been a weekly anti-migrant march
through the town, organised by groups including Crowborough Says No! and Crowborough
Shield. The demonstrators are not all local, but many describe themselves
as “concerned residents”. Today, they have decided to stage a static protest,
occupying the spot where the pro-asylum seeker group usually holds a vigil.
The two
groups look at each other. There is no overt hostility. One protester is
dressed in black paramilitary gear, a mask covering most of his face, the
initials on his uniform identifying him as a member of a “community safety”
group called the British
Security Project. That aside, a casual passerby might interpret the scene
as neighbours having a polite disagreement. Because the numbers are small, the
music is blaring and the weather is mild, the atmosphere is relatively
laid-back.
But since
the Home Office dropped the bombshell late last year that asylum seekers were
moving in, the mood in town has been increasingly dark.
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image in fullscreen
Rival
protesters on the streets of Crowborough last Sunday. Photograph: Sean
Smith/The Guardian
The
people of Crowborough never used to be divided in this way. The town is not one
that politicians describe as “left behind”. It is relatively affluent, with low
levels of unemployment; it celebrates its most famous former resident, the
author Arthur Conan Doyle, and takes pride in nearby Ashdown Forest, where AA
Milne set the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
In 2022, the
Guardian hailed Crowborough as one of the most welcoming towns in the UK to
Ukrainian refugees. Today, however, some residents stress the fact that the
Ukrainians came to the UK legally. It is also legal under international law to
claim asylum, although in 2022 the
government introduced the offence of “illegal arrival” to deter people from
entering the country without authorisation – on small boats, for example. Some
residents are also unhappy that the people on the military base are all men,
most of them young.
According
to Anna, who has lived in Crowborough since she was a child, and has come out
today to support the camp’s residents, the town used to be “boring”. “Nothing
ever happened here,” she says. “There was never any excitement.” But the
arrival of the asylum seekers has changed all that. High-profile figures on the
far right have visited and whipped up fear and hatred. When Ukip leader Nick
Tenconi spoke at one of the protests, he started a chant of: “Send them home!”
and declared:
“It is time for patriotic rage and holy fury … No one asked for uncontrolled
illegal migration.”
When
Katie Hopkins came, she
said she understood that “you are fed up of being treated as second-class
citizens in your own country”. She added: “When people who have no right to be
in this country get put at the front of the line, that is not OK.”
The
town’s divisions have also featured in a Channel 4 documentary, England
’Til I Die, which centred on Liam Tomsett, a local utilities manager turned
anti-immigration activist.
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image in fullscreen
As well
as protesting, some of the townsfolk are providing clothes and aid to the
asylum seekers. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
“Those
who are hostile towards the asylum seekers predicted there would be a crime
spree from the day they arrived,” says Anna, who, like most people interviewed
for this piece, asked to use a pseudonym. “But it hasn’t happened. A lot of
this is based on people’s fears rather than their actual experience.”
Signs
prohibiting urinating, defecating and spitting have been fixed to the fence
surrounding the military base, tapping into racist tropes about asylum seekers.
The Home Office has confirmed that neither it nor Wealden district council
erected them.
According
to Sussex Police, there have been just three criminal charges related to
Crowborough since the camp opened in January, one involving an asylum seeker
who was inside it at the time of the alleged offence. The others involve two
anti-migrant protesters, both with addresses outside the town.
But that
scarcely seems to matter. “They haven’t done anything wrong so far – but should
we have to wait for that to happen, because it’s going to?” one man holding a
union jack asks. Others talk of migrants defecating in gardens and groping a
girl, but are unable to provide details.
One woman
complains about men from the camp buying alcohol in town, then drinking on the
streets. “They’ve got no morals. What sort of people are they to sit down
outside Lidl after buying alcohol? And we taxpayers are paying for it. While
our children are struggling to make ends meet, they’re getting everything for
free.”
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image in fullscreen
Protesters
in Crowborough. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
“These
idiots talking about love and peace with their unicorns and rainbows, a lot of
them are mentally retarded,” adds another woman, repeating claims that asylum
seekers “spit and poo in people’s gardens”. She goes on to praise Daniel
Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, a far-right agitator recently charged
with offences connected to allegedly slashing a dinghy in the Channel.
Apart
from Holly Jeffery and Caroline Coxon, 71, both supporting the asylum seekers,
nobody on either side wants to be identified. A local organisation, Samas
(Supporting Arriving Migrants and Asylum Seekers), has more than 200
volunteers who help the base’s residents with everything from English classes
to clothes and growing plants and food. But most are afraid to show their faces
at the weekly vigil, or even to announce their support, for fear of being abused
as “migrant babysitters” or “boat shaggers”, or having their personal
information circulated and used to harass them. Some far-right “auditors” have
been filming volunteers as they go in and out of the camp, as well as recording
their car number plates, sometimes streaming footage to their own YouTube
channels.
“Some
people are disguising themselves when they go into Crowborough town,” says Pam,
who supports the asylum seekers. “I go out wearing a hat and sunglasses and
change the colour of my hair every time I go to the hairdresser.”
I’m
proud of what we’re doing. I’m more determined than ever to speak up for what I
believe in
“What
have we become?” asks Don, a retired teacher. “I would love to go out there
loud and proud, but the reality is you are putting your whole life and family
on the line if you do that.”
He was
giving out leaflets telling a more positive story about asylum seekers than the
rapist invader narrative when he was told: “Don’t give me one. I want to see
them all die in the Channel.” “I find this deeply disturbing,” Don says.
When he
speaks about meeting the new arrivals recently at a social event, he starts
crying.
“I found
the asylum seekers to be incredible people, normal people. The fact that they
got here at all is a miracle,” he says. “They have fled terrible things and
they just want to get on with their lives here.”
Anna
helps source clothing from local charity shops. “I’m never sure, when I pay for
14 T-shirts or something like that, if I can say to the person behind the
counter: ‘I’m buying these for the asylum seekers,’ or if it’s better just to
keep quiet,” she says.
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image in fullscreen
Street
protests have remained peaceful. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Most of
those protesting against the camp would not want to harm the asylum seekers or
their supporters. But a dossier compiled by local residents and passed to the
police claims that some have gone further than marches or vigils.
On
Facebook and other platforms, people who are known to support the asylum
seekers have been threatened with acid attacks, petrol bombs and rape. The
dossier, which has been seen by the Guardian, also claims that several local
businesses have been threatened by far-right agitators, along with a church
where some asylum seekers worship. One man was punched in the throat after he
held up a “Love Thy Neighbour” sign, while an elderly couple were falsely
accused of supporting sex offenders. In yet another case, a 92-year-old church
volunteer was reportedly woken at 3am for two nights in a row by a man standing
outside her home, shining a torch through her window and shouting abuse.
Jeffery
and Coxon say they thought long and hard about going public, given the hostile
climate that pervades their home town. Both have been the subject of
unflattering cartoons online.
“The far
right discovered who I was and where I live,” says Coxon. “I was quite scared.
I decided I could do one of two things. Either I could hide away or I could
stand up and be counted. I’m proud of what we’re doing. I’m more determined
than ever to speak up for what I believe in. I will not let them stamp on me.”
“I’ve
been targeted on Facebook,” says Jeffery. “Seeing all the scaremongering and
misinformation on social media, I thought: ‘Enough is enough. I can’t let this
go unchallenged.’ Those who shout loudest aren’t necessarily in the majority.”
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image in fullscreen
‘A town
divided’ … All Saints Church, Crowborough. Photograph: Andrew Hasson/Alamy
She is
hopeful that Crowborough may yet be able to heal from the damage the Home
Office decision has caused. But she isn’t holding her breath. “Crowborough is
still a town divided,” she says.
The Home
Office defends its decision to accommodate asylum seekers in Crowborough. A
spokesperson said: “The government is working on a fairer distribution of
asylum accommodation across the country, with over £1bn saved in costs since
the election. This includes closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative
accommodation, including former military sites. These are designed to be
self-contained, with 24-hour security and CCTV, to reduce the impact on local
communities.”
Back at
the protests, the anti-migrant group is first to drift away. The pro-asylum
seeker group move into the space they have vacated and start singing and
dancing to the Black Eyed Peas: “Whatever happened to the values of humanity? …
Lack of understanding leading us away from unity … Where is the love? Where is
the love?”
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