UK ex-soldiers rough-sleeping on streets

More than 15 former members of armed forces are currently sleeping rough in Brighton and Hove, The Argus reported, while the number is as high as 50 across Sussex.

The Sussex police did not confirm the figures but Sergeant Richard Siggs who leads the Police Street Community team in Brighton said they “have a number of homeless individuals that are informing us that they are ex-military.”

“One man I know was on board a boat that was blown up in the Falklands. Others have recently come back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” he added.

Former paratrooper Nick Zaver, who is now running a charity for ex-servicemen in the region said he himself ended up “homeless and sleeping in [his] car for three months” after 18 years in the army.

The guys we are meeting have given their lives for their country and have ended up with nothing, the lowest of the low,” Zaver said.

The report underlines the catastrophic condition the British war machine has imposed on a number of its most dedicated citizens.

The paper quoted other former soldiers complaining they have to “manage” their “mental health issues on a daily, sometimes moment-to-moment basis” and have to endure “flashbacks and night terrors” after war traumas including witnessing the mutilated bodies of children and women in Iraq.

This is while client support officer for the Royal British Legion in Sussex Alan Merry said he sees 150 to 200 former soldiers each year who are mostly homeless or becoming one.

AMR/GHN/HE

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