Home Office faces legal action over ‘dire’ Manston immigration centre

Suella Braverman will head to Dover today as the Government tries to limit the damage from the spiralling Channel migrant crisis. 

The Home Secretary will make her first trip to the front line of the political battle as the Government faces legal action over conditions at the Manston migrant processing centre, thought to be housing at least twice as many people as it is designed to hold. 

Ministers are under increasing political pressure to get a grip on small boats crossing the Channel from the continent and deal properly with those who are arriving.

A judicial review is being brought against the Home Office after reports of severe overcrowding at the Kent centre, Immigration minister Robert Jenrick confirmed last night.

Mr Jenrick estimated 3,500 people remained at the facility on Wednesday night – its maximum capacity is 1,600.

But hundreds of people have been removed from the site in recent days, with Mr Jenrick expressing hope that Manston will return to being ‘legally compliant’ soon.

Ms Braverman has faced questions over overcrowding at the site and the crossings crisis.

And the Albanian prime minister and Royal Family have become embroiled in a war-of-words with UK ministers over the arrival of migrants from the Balkan state. 

Edi Rama took aim at Ms Braverman, accusing her of ‘fuelling xenophobia’ by branding Channel crossings ‘an invasion’ and scapegoating his citizens to distract from their ‘failed policies’.

Meanwhile, the Home Office admitted a ‘massive error’ had been made after asylum seekers were reportedly left at London’s Victoria Station without accommodation after being taken out of Manston.

A group of 11 men were driven to the capital from Kent on Tuesday as part of a larger group, The Guardian reported. 

The Home Office is facing legal action for the living conditions at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent (pictured)

The Home Secretary will make her first trip to the front line of the political battle as the Government faces legal action over conditions at the Manston migrant processing centre, thought to be housing at least twice as many people as it is designed to hold.

Ministers are under increasing political pressure to get a grip on the small boats crossing the Channel from the continent and deal properly with those who are arriving

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick estimated about 3,500 people were at Manston on Wednesday night despite its maximum capacity of 1,600

People are seen inside an immigration processing centre – which currently is over twice its maximum capacity 

Edi Rama, who has been Albania’s leader since 2013, demanded ‘mutual respect’ and said it was ‘insane’ to blame his country for the UK’s immigration and crime woes

The letter claims there is a disabled child at the site, adding: ‘He’s really bad, they don’t even care about him’

A small demonstration took place outside the migrant holding facility at Manston last night

Danial Abbas, from the Under One Sky homelessness charity, said the group at London Victoria were left ‘highly distressed, disorientated, lost’ with ‘nowhere to go’.

Mr Abbas told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I personally was in touch with a gentleman from the Home Office that whole evening. Very quickly a solution was found. 

‘He immediately, you know, put his hands up on behalf of the Home Office and said, “this has been a massive error, let’s get this sorted ASAP”.’

Climate minister Graham Stuart conceded the Manston asylum processing centre is not operating legally.

Asked whether he was happy that asylum seekers were being detained illegally, he told Sky News: ‘Obviously not. None of us are comfortable with it. We want it tackled, we want to get a grip, that’s exactly what the Home Secretary is focused on.’

He blamed an ‘unacceptable surge’ in small boat crossings, adding the ‘system is struggling to cope’.

‘It is not where we want it to be right now and we are simply looking to balance that out, thousands more hotel rooms have been sorted out but it’s unacceptable to the British people and we need to do more to tackle the traffickers in what is an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration,’ he added.

Migrants being held at the centre were also seen begging for help on earlier this week.

A young girl broke past security to throw a bottle containing a letter over the fence of the Kent site to the Press gathered outside yesterday.

It claimed there were pregnant women and sick detainees inside, and a disabled child was not being cared for.

The letter, in broken English, said: ‘We are in a difficult life now… we fill like we’re in prison (sic).’

Witnesses said they saw security guards at the site ushering detainees inside when members of the Press were walking by the fence.

The letter said: ‘Some of us very sick… ther’s some women’s that are pregnant they don’t do anything for them (sic)… We really need your help. Please help us.

‘It’s not easy for someone who has children… There’s a lot of children they shouldn’t be here. They should be in a school not prison.’

It added: ‘We wanna talk to you but they don’t even let us go outside.’

It came as council leaders in Kent wrote to the Home Secretary complaining that the influx of asylum seekers housed locally has put enormous strain on schools, social housing and the healthcare system.

They called on the rest of England to shoulder responsibility, as government efforts to ease pressure on Manston appeared to have put Whitehall on collision course with fed-up locals.

A young girl threw a bottle containing a letter over the perimeter fence at the Manston processing centre on Wednesday afternoon which claimed desperate families have been held at the Kent facility for a month

The letter, written in broken English and addressed to ‘journalists, organisations, everyone’ appeared to suggest 50 families had been held at Manston for more than 30 days

Witnesses said they saw security guards at the site ushering detainees back inside when members of the press were walking by the fence

The letter went on to say, ‘our food is very bad like its make us fill sick … we got no phone no money no smok’

It comes after council leaders from Kent warned the county is at ‘breaking point’ because of the burden of accommodating migrants

People hold a vigil calling for the immigration processing centre to be closed in Manston

In a letter to Ms Braverman, the council leaders wrote: ‘Put simply, Kent is at breaking point.

‘Kent and Medway makes up just 3 per cent of our country’s geographic space, and yet we are a victim of our geographic position.

‘We are continually called upon to meet national challenges and we do so willingly. It is time to utilise the remaining 97 per cent of the country to relieve the burden on Kent.’

It comes as around a thousand migrants left the Manston temporary processing facility near Ramsgate in the last two days, destined for hotel accommodation while their asylum claims are considered.

Some were making the Albanian eagle gesture with their hands as they left the site on buses.

Local MP Sir Roger Gale last night said politicians expected Manston to return to its 1,600-person capacity by the weekend, down from 4,100 in recent days, after new immigration minister Mr Jenrick ‘put a fizzer up it’ and addressed blockages.

But his actions appear to have further frustrated local council leaders, who say they are concerned about reports of growing tensions on site, with people sleeping on roll mats and in cramped conditions, and safeguarding concerns over adult men being housed alongside young families.

Others were simply dumped at rural railways stations with no support, they said.

The 14 council leaders in Kent and Medway told the Home Office it has a social housing waiting list of nearly 20,000, with many unable to afford the private sector.

They said secondary schools in Canterbury and Ashford ‘currently have no year 7 and year 9 places for local children due to the unexpected and therefore unplanned-for arrivals of refugee children disproportionately placed by the Home Office in these two local authority areas’.

Some local children are having to travel to other towns to access their education, ‘placing further financial burden on Kent County Council who have to fund their home to school transport as a result’, the letter added.

Council leaders also accused the Government of keeping them in the dark when a large hotel in Ashford was used to accommodate migrants leaving Manston.

They said: ‘This is an abject failure of duty, a complete disregard for partners’ statutory duties.

‘The associated risks to service users, staff on site, local community and public services is inexcusable.

‘This culture of dismissing local partners is endemic within parts of the Home Office. It is only a matter of time before we have to manage another serious incident.’

Manston opened in January this year to relieve pressure on a Home Office facility in nearby Dover, but has endured widespread condemnation in recent weeks.

Rishi Sunak was repeatedly grilled about the Government’s immigration policy yesterday, and admitted not enough asylum seeker claims had been processed so far this year.

The Prime Minister described the migrant crisis as a ‘serious and escalating problem’, caused by the prominence of criminal gangs profiting out of sending economic migrants to England.

But he also backed the embattled Home Secretary to ‘fix’ issues at Manston by securing thousands of hotel rooms.

He told Prime Minister’s Questions: ‘This is a serious and escalating problem. We will make sure that we control our borders and we will always do it fairly and compassionately, because that is the right thing.’

Migrants at the controversial Manston camp (pictured) in Kent have been sleeping on the floor of marquees for a month, are not allowed to use toilets with the doors closed and have not had a GP stationed on site until this week, it was claimed

Speaking today, Ahmed (not pictured here) – not his real name – said he had spent 24 days at Manston as he compared it to a ‘prison camp’. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I slept on the floor, a lot of people were there. In one big tent there were maybe 130 people. It was cold.’ 

Workers clock in for their shifts at the Manston migrant camp in Kent on Wednesday morning 

A coach full of migrants smiled and waved as they left the Manston camp in Kent on Tuesday 

Migrants smile and wave as they are taken out of Manston to hotels and hostels around Britain

People, thought to be migrants, queue for the shower facilities at Manston, a former RAF base which is being used as a short-term holding facility

The site has tripled in size since May, when seven tents were being used to house asylum seekers compared to 21 yesterday as numbers have swelled. Pictured: Tents at the immigration site at Manston 

Some 4,000 people are now packed into a space designed for just 1,600 on the former RAF base in Kent and severe overcrowding has led to outbreaks of violence and diphtheria. Pictured: Detainees gesture through a fence at an immigration processing centre in Manston

The site has tripled in size since May, when seven tents were being used to house asylum seekers compared to 21 yesterday as numbers have swelled

Staff on the ground in Manston have warned that migrants are making weapons out of tent parts, loo roll holders, and broken bits from the wired fence. Others claimed that combs have been crafted into blades. Pictured: The facility at Manston Airfield

A view of bags containing items relating to people thought to be migrants at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent