Migrants held at Manston processing centre to be vaccinated against DIPTHERIA

People being held at Manston immigration centre are to be vaccinated against diphtheria in the latest sign of poor conditions faced by families and individuals at the site.

It comes after dozens of cases of the highly contagious disease were confirmed in England, including four at the processing centre, health authorities have said.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick confirmed on November 1 that four cases had been identified, but insisted those involved had arrived at Manston already infected.

He said reports of diphtheria, MRSA and scabies incidents at the centre had been ‘exaggerated’. There have been multiple reports of people at the site with scabies and diphtheria.

But the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it is now moving with the Home Office to vaccinate migrants at the centre following a spike in infections.

It comes as pictures show more asylum seekers and migrants arriving in the UK on Saturday morning after poor weather put a halt to all crossings since October 31.

Border Force officials could be seen bringing groups of people into shore at Dover this morning, after the latest government figures showed there were no arrivals at all on Thursday.

Families and women with young children were among those pictured disembarking from Border Force vessels, after being picked up from the Channel.

Women carrying young children were among those picked up in the English Channel on Saturday morning

A Border Force vessel returns to harbour in Dover after rescuing people from small boats out at sea

A group of people arrive in the UK after being rescued from the English Channel

Those who made the crossing early on Saturday morning wait to be processed by Home Office officials

The UKHSA revealed on Friday that 39 diphtheria cases had been identified in asylum seekers in England in 2022, as of November 10, warning accommodation settings should be considered ‘high-risk for infectious diseases’.

The Government agency said in many cases the illness had been contracted abroad and carried to the UK, stressing the need for action to ‘minimise the risk of further transmission’.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, the UKHSA’s deputy director of public health programmes, said work is ongoing with the Home Office to roll out vaccines and antibiotics at Manston.

‘The UKHSA has been working closely with the Home Office at the Manston reception centre where there have been a number of cases of diphtheria and other infections,’ she said.

‘We recommend that diphtheria vaccination and antibiotics are offered to people at the centre and all those who have moved on recently.

‘This is currently being operationalised and we are working with the Home Office and the NHS to make this happen.’

The Home Office confirmed it was working alongside the UKHSA and NHS to provide vaccines against the disease, but stressed the number of migrants affected at Manston was ‘very small’.

In guidance for cases and outbreaks in asylum seeker accommodation settings, published on Friday, the UKHSA said its incident management team had recommended ‘mass antibiotic prophylaxis and mass vaccination’.

This was due to a ‘high prevalence’ of toxigenic diphtheria infection in high volume reception settings where individual case and contact management is not possible, it said.

The treatment has been recommended for asylum seekers arriving at reception centres after October 31 and before December 12, including those who have already been dispatched to hotels, with young children and their families prioritised.

A national briefing has also been sent to NHS staff to ‘highlight the importance of early diagnosis and prompt treatment of suspected cases’.

‘In light of the increase in cases of diphtheria and the challenges of contact tracing in asylum seeker accommodation settings, it is important additional measures are put in place to quickly identify suspected cases and minimise the risk of further transmission,’ the guidance said.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a very small number of cases of diphtheria reported at Manston. Full medical guidance and protocols have been followed.

‘We take both the welfare of those in our care and our wider public health responsibilities extremely seriously.

‘As such, we will continue to work closely with the NHS and UK Health Security Agency to support the individuals affected and limit transmission of the infection, including providing diphtheria vaccines.’

This week it has been revealed the Home Office deported 350 people in October, more than 100 of whom were Albanian nationals.  

The figure included 22 people who arrived after crossing the Channel in small boats and were removed directly from Manston processing centre in Kent.

Almost 7,000 people arrived in the UK via small boat crossings in October, many of whom are vulnerable asylum seekers.

As the peak for small boat crossings tends to be in summer, this suggests that only a very small proportion of those arriving in the UK have committed offences. But the Home Office said those deported with prior offences had been convicted of ‘serious’ crimes, including rape, murder and assault.

It comes after Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under increasing pressure to get a grip on the crisis, with huge backlogs in processing asylum claims and horrific conditions reported at migrant detention centres. 

People wearing life jackets disembark from a Border Force vessel on Saturday

People are seen being guided by Border Force officials on where to go after landing on UK soil

Groups were pictured in the early hours of Saturday at Border Force facilities in Dover, Kent, for the first time since October 31.

The provisional total of arrivals for 2022 had been 39,913 ahead of the weekend, with the figure inching closer to 40,000.

Official figures are expected to be released by the Ministry of Defence on Sunday.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the removals would ‘send a clear message’ to people she says have no right to be in the UK.

Those deported in October included a Jamaican rapist who was sentenced to 14 years in jail, an Albanian jailed for more than nine years for violent crime and a Malaysian murderer who had received a life sentence.

Of the 347 people returned during October, 118 were to Albania, 39 to Brazil, 38 to Romania, 26 to Poland and 20 to Lithuania, the Home Office revealed. The majority – 230 – had previously committed offences in their own countries.

But the remaining 117 were immigration offenders including two people who were removed within 24 days of arriving by small boat across the Channel. A third was sent back within 27 days of arrival.

To date this year, the UK has removed over 10,400 individuals via enforced and voluntary returns, including over 2,500 foreign national offenders. Within that time, the French authorities have prevented over 29,000 crossings and destroyed over 1,000 small boats. 

Ms Braverman said: ‘The number of people reaching the UK illegally in small boats is at an all-time high and is putting our asylum system under intense strain.

‘By returning hundreds of people coming here illegally and dangerous foreign criminals in this way, we are sending a clear message that those with no right to be in the UK are not welcome here.

‘I have been clear that I am exploring every avenue at my disposal to accelerate their removal.’

But the Home Secretary has come under increasing pressure to get a grip on the asylum system after a series of scandals in recent weeks showed just how overcrowded centres are. 

Ms Braverman told the House of Commons last month that the UK’s asylum system is ‘broken’. 

It came amid rising tensions in Dover as Manston processing centre, designed to hold 1,600 people for around 24 hours for processing, was revealed to be housing 4,000 people, including families who had been sleeping on floors for up to 30 days.

In October a child ran to the fence at the edge of the Manston centre and handed a note in a bottle to a photographer.

The note described harrowing conditions with dozens kept at the centre for at least a month – instead of the 24 hours it was designed for.

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

The letter, written 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 back inside when members of the press were walking by the fence.

The young girl was among a group of children who broke past security guards and ran over to the fence to throw the bottle to the photographer.

It 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.’

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

It came just days after a right-wing extremist terror attack in which a man drove more than 100 miles to Dover and threw multiple improvised petrol bombs at the centre.

One member of staff was injured. 

The Home Office have since scrambled to book hotels to move migrants on from Manston, in a bid to shift attention away from the poor conditions. 

But in the effort to reduce the number of people at the centre, one group of people were driven to Victoria Coach Centre in London and left there with nowhere to go – and no idea where they were. They were later assisted by homeless charities and the Home Office.

The number of people reaching the UK in small boats from France after navigating busy shipping lanes has increased steadily in recent years.

August 22 saw the highest daily total on record, with 1,295 people crossing in 27 boats.

Some 299 were detected in 2018, followed by 1,843 in 2019 and 8,466 in 2020, official figures show.

Despite the growing numbers, the small boat arrivals are a fraction of the number of people going to mainland Europe.

Data from the UN’s refugee agency shows at least 120,441 people arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea last year.

The map that shows the scale of Britain’s asylum crisis and reveals the rise in the number of hotels used by the government to house migrants at a daily cost of £6.8 million to taxpayers

By Sue Reid for the Daily Mail

This map of Britain reveals the dramatic rise in the number of hotels requisitioned by the Government to house migrants at a £6.8 million daily cost to taxpayers.

Cities, towns and villages from London to rural Lincolnshire, Wales’s Snowdonia to Devon seaside resorts, are providing emergency rooms, at up to £150 a night per person, for thousands of arrivals needing a roof over their heads in the growing immigration crisis.

It is thought at least 200 hotels have now been taken over by the Government, housing some 37,000 migrants. Approximately a third are marked on this map, including a cluster of 20 in the West Midlands, housing hundreds of migrant guests.

The Mail has discovered that some state-requisitioned hotels, now closed to the visiting public, have given sanctuary to young men earmarked for deportation after slipping into the UK on traffickers’ Channel boats within the past few weeks.

We have interviewed a young Albanian who paid £4,500 for the clandestine journey to Dover from France, and was then sent to Manston processing centre in Kent for initial identity checks.

He was placed on immigration bail — meaning he was liable to be dispatched back to Albania — yet was still given a room at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he was free to come and go.

He has since walked out of the hotel and is in hiding somewhere in the UK (from where he gave us an interview) despite being a suspected illegal immigrant.

This map of Britain reveals the drama-tic rise in the number of hotels requisitioned by the Government to house migrants at a £6.8 million daily cost to taxpayers

He told us: ‘I arrived on October 25 in Dover. I was sent to a place called Manston processing centre and put with 300 other Albanians in one building.

‘They took my fingerprints. We were surrounded by guards. Thanks to the big scandal about this centre being overcrowded, I was let out without asking anything more about who I was. I was put on a bus with black-tinted windows in the middle of the night and brought to a hotel with other Albanians.

‘If you do not return to the hotel, you are listed as a missing person. That is all. I am no longer there. I am with my relatives in the UK.’

But the lack of security regarding hotel ‘guests’ — as Border Force staff are instructed to call migrants — is not the only issue. In other hotels, some have protested over conditions.

At the Holiday Inn, Colchester, two visitors staged a roof-top protest last week which was recorded on video and went viral online. The men shouted their demands in Urdu — the language of Pakistan — and were brought down to safety by police.

Meanwhile, hotels in the most picturesque parts of the country now have migrant ‘guests’ as MPs complain of a lack of consultation by the Government over the take-overs.

A young Albanian was placed on immigration bail — meaning he was liable to be dispatched back to Albania — yet was still given a room at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he was free to come and go (pictured: Crowne Plaza Heathrow migrants)

At Snowdonia’s Hilton Garden Inn, which overlooks an ornamental lake, a staff member on the reception desk told the Mail: ‘All reservations and events have been cancelled while we take in refugees. We will open again next February, maybe March.’

Local MP Robin Millar said this week: ‘I am concerned about the impact on local communities and the suitability of this property, in this location, for this purpose. It is a hotel, not a detention centre’.

In Blackpool, where the Illuminations season is bringing thousands of visitors to the Lancashire seaside resort, MP Paul Maynard spoke out in Parliament about the famous Metropole Hotel being requisitioned. He said the promenade site was unsuitable for them or the community as it stood in an area which already had social problems.

The Great Hallingbury Manor (pictured) has been taken over to house 50 male migrants

Difficulties of a similar kind have emerged in Essex where the four-star Great Hallingbury Manor has been taken over to house 50 male migrants aged under 40 from North Africa, with two staff looking after them, according to locals.

The Tudor-style property has 44 double rooms, 20 in chalets in its wooded grounds near a lake, a picnic area, and barbecue site. A sign on the door states clearly: ‘Our hotel is closed to the public. Apologies for any inconvenience.’

A member of staff reportedly told a visiting journalist: ‘They have the run of the hotel, the bedrooms are very comfortable. There are three meals a day, but some have complained about what is served. They spend their days walking about or playing football.’

Another Home Office-requisitioned hotel causing controversy — at least among disgruntled locals — is The Dolphin Hotel beside the Great Ouse river in St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

It has glorious views of a 15th-century bridge, and there are big-screen TVs for the migrant visitors to enjoy. However, one local — who asked not to be named — said: ‘People used to spend a fortune to stay here or live nearby overlooking the river. It is more like a student halls of residence now.’ Meanwhile, people living near the Holiday Inn Express, Rotherham, have complained about the noise. They say that men housed at the hotel play ‘really loud music all night long’.

Local MP John Healey said the hotel is ‘unsuited’ as accommodation for 130 refugees. He said this is because the area is far from the town centre and there is already a shortage of NHS capacity, adding that using hotels in this way was the result of a failing and unfair asylum system.

Joe Theaker, an HGV driver who lives nearby, called for a curfew as his children cannot sleep.

In Bristol, a group of migrants living at the Holiday Inn near the airport have said they are ‘cut off from shops, people, and asylum seekers’ services’. The 100 young men from Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Somalia, have to take buses into the city for medical or legal appointments.

Living in finer style near Grantham in Lincolnshire are migrants at another four-star hotel, Stoke Rochford Hall. Advertised as a luxury Victorian country mansion, set within formal landscaped gardens, the establishment has been criticised for cancelling weddings while migrants have been given residence. During a parliamentary debate this week after the ‘Downton Abbey-style’ hotel’s use was highlighted by The Mail on Sunday, Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP in the county, said the hotel normally charged £400 a night. He described it as a ‘farce’ compounded by the swift way migrants found themselves in hotel accommodation after arrival.

Living in finer style near Grantham in Lincolnshire are migrants at another four-star hotel, Stoke Rochford Hall (pictured)

In Shakespeare country, the picturesque Grosvenor Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon, has been taken over for families of asylum seekers. And in Melton Mowbray, a country house hotel that was once the hunting lodge of the creator of Colman’s mustard, one Colonel Colman, is now earmarked to be the home of migrants for a second time.

Last year when it was used for the purpose, an enraged would-be visitor wrote on a travel webpage that he had not been informed that he would be staying in a ‘hotel full of migrants’.

Disturbingly, at a migrant hotel in the outer London borough of Waltham Forest, an investigation is now under way over a child and a teenager who were allegedly both sexually assaulted. The hotel holds 450 migrants, including 150 children.

The Metropolitan police said a 17-year-old boy had been charged with one count of sexual touching of a 13-year-old. In a second incident a man in his 30s has been questioned and bailed for a New Year court appearance regarding the rape of a teenage boy.

This week the Home Office admitted using hotels to house migrants was ‘unacceptable’ and that it was a short-term solution.

Yet, it has to be said that with more illegal migrants expected across from France in boats this weekend, it is highly probable that still fewer hotels will be open to visitors wanting hospitality at Christmas or New Year.

Caravan parks, military bases and student halls of residence also being eyed up by ministers

By Jason Groves Political Editor

Channel migrants could be housed in holiday parks as ministers scramble to house the rising numbers making the illegal crossing.

Ministers have discussed dispersing asylum seekers to resorts such as Pontins and Butlin’s, as well as caravan parks, military bases and even university halls of residence.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also proposed changing planning laws to allow vacant government buildings to be converted into temporary accommodation without planning permission.

However, ministers have ruled out using cruise ships, despite the idea being put forward by Rishi Sunak in the summer.

The scramble for accommodation comes despite growing optimism that the Government will sign a deal with France next week aimed at stepping up patrols to prevent the people traffickers’ boats taking to the water.

Downing Street said that an agreement was in the ‘final stages’ following talks between the Prime Minister and President Emmanuel Macron. Mrs Braverman is hoping to arrange a meeting with French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, next week to finalise the details.

The Government has been scrambling for accommodation for migrants despite growing optimism that they will sign a deal with France next week aimed at stepping up beach patrols

The deal is expected to involve the UK paying Paris an extra £80million to help fund patrols along hundreds of miles of the French coastline.

For the first time, UK Border Force officers will be permitted to work inside the French control rooms that coordinate the searches for people smuggling gangs.

But Mr Macron has resisted calls to allow British personnel to conduct joint patrols. The UK agreed to pay France £55million last year to step up patrols.

Downing Street insisted the cash had produced dividends, with French patrols preventing 29,000 people from making the hazardous crossing.

Despite this, a record 40,000 have made their way to the UK this year, putting pressure on the Government to increase cooperation with France.

A Whitehall source said the expected arrangement would help but acknowledged it was ‘not a silver bullet’.

Bad weather has slowed the rate of crossings in recent days, but ministers are braced for fresh boatloads to arrive next week.

Ministers looked at using resorts run by Pontins last year, with sites at Camber Sands in East Sussex and Prestatyn in north Wales both mentioned as possible locations. But a renewed drive has been launched amid growing difficulty in finding suitable hotels for the stream of new arrivals.

Ministers looked at using resorts run by Pontins last year, with sites at Camber Sands (pictured) in East Sussex being mentioned as a possible location

Insiders said that resorts used would be block-booked, leaving them unavailable for holiday makers.

A Home Office source said: ‘As you’d expect we’re looking at a range of options to tackle the problem of finding accommodation for what has been an unprecedented surge of illegal arrivals in small boats.

‘It’s not straightforward and we’ll ensure that local communities are consulted on any proposals.’

At a private meeting with Conservative backbenchers this week Rishi Sunak said resolving the Channel crisis was his second biggest domestic priority – after the economy.

One source at the meeting said: ‘He did seem to get the importance of restoring public confidence in our borders.

‘He made the point that a prime minister is able to focus on only a small number of issues, and that this would be one of them.’

The Home Office is spending £6.8million a day to house almost 50,000 asylum seekers and Afghan refugees in hotels. Some are even staying in luxury hotels at a cost of more than £150 a night.