The remarks come after fresh assessment revealed that inmates were not
permitted to fully close lavatory doors and were forced to sleep on the
floor.
According to the assessment from the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, some
migrants were denied access to mobile phones in order to notify their
families whether they were safe, while other “exhausted inmates” waited
more than 30 hours to be processed.
Manston is a non-residential institution where detainees can be held for up
to 24 hours while their initial immigration paperwork is completed.
The facility is originally built to accommodate 1,000 people, but there are
currently about 4,000 migrants there, which is more than any UK prison
population.
While food, water, baths, and toilets are available, there are no
mattresses and no access to fresh air or exercise.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has faced criticism for the
facility’s congestion and has been accused of ignoring legal advice that
migrants should be transferred to hotels from Manston.
On Monday, she stated she “never rejected legal advice” and has “worked
hard to find accommodation to ease pressure at Manston” since being
appointed by Liz Truss in early September.
She did, however, claim that illegal migration is “out of control,” citing
a “invasion on our south coast.”
She also stated that the sheer volume of people arriving over the Channel
makes it hard to provide accommodation for them.
Following the publication of the report, Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie
Taylor asked the government department and its contractors to expedite
immigration processing and provide “appropriate provisions” so that people
can be relocated from the facility near Ramsgate in Kent as soon as
feasible.
The Home Office and contractors need to get a grip, they need to speed up
immigration processing, they need to create sufficient accommodations so
individuals can be relocated off-site as soon as possible and accommodated
in compassionate and respectable conditions,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s
Today programme.
When migrants arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel from Calais, they
are transferred to Western Jet Foil in Dover and Lydd Airport in Romney
Marsh for health examinations.
When the examination took place, the Lydd Airport site was empty.
It observed “failures” in Manston procedures that “undermine the center’s
resiliency in coping with increasing loads of prisoners.”
It did, however, find the facility adequate for short-term confinement and
praised staff efforts to “create a calm, even welcome atmosphere.”
While Manston was determined to have a “fair number” of housing available,
“most of it was out of use because there were not enough employees” at the
time of the inspection.
Other “stress indicators” included “exhausted inmates” sleeping on the
floor, some of whom had been waiting for more than 30 hours to be processed.
It comes after Conservative backbencher Sir Roger Gale said that
overcrowding at the facility, where MRSA and diphtheria outbreaks have been
detected, is “wholly unacceptable.”
permitted to fully close lavatory doors and were forced to sleep on the
floor.
According to the assessment from the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, some
migrants were denied access to mobile phones in order to notify their
families whether they were safe, while other “exhausted inmates” waited
more than 30 hours to be processed.
Manston is a non-residential institution where detainees can be held for up
to 24 hours while their initial immigration paperwork is completed.
The facility is originally built to accommodate 1,000 people, but there are
currently about 4,000 migrants there, which is more than any UK prison
population.
While food, water, baths, and toilets are available, there are no
mattresses and no access to fresh air or exercise.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has faced criticism for the
facility’s congestion and has been accused of ignoring legal advice that
migrants should be transferred to hotels from Manston.
On Monday, she stated she “never rejected legal advice” and has “worked
hard to find accommodation to ease pressure at Manston” since being
appointed by Liz Truss in early September.
She did, however, claim that illegal migration is “out of control,” citing
a “invasion on our south coast.”
She also stated that the sheer volume of people arriving over the Channel
makes it hard to provide accommodation for them.
Following the publication of the report, Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie
Taylor asked the government department and its contractors to expedite
immigration processing and provide “appropriate provisions” so that people
can be relocated from the facility near Ramsgate in Kent as soon as
feasible.
The Home Office and contractors need to get a grip, they need to speed up
immigration processing, they need to create sufficient accommodations so
individuals can be relocated off-site as soon as possible and accommodated
in compassionate and respectable conditions,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s
Today programme.
When migrants arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel from Calais, they
are transferred to Western Jet Foil in Dover and Lydd Airport in Romney
Marsh for health examinations.
When the examination took place, the Lydd Airport site was empty.
It observed “failures” in Manston procedures that “undermine the center’s
resiliency in coping with increasing loads of prisoners.”
It did, however, find the facility adequate for short-term confinement and
praised staff efforts to “create a calm, even welcome atmosphere.”
While Manston was determined to have a “fair number” of housing available,
“most of it was out of use because there were not enough employees” at the
time of the inspection.
Other “stress indicators” included “exhausted inmates” sleeping on the
floor, some of whom had been waiting for more than 30 hours to be processed.
It comes after Conservative backbencher Sir Roger Gale said that
overcrowding at the facility, where MRSA and diphtheria outbreaks have been
detected, is “wholly unacceptable.”
