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Home Office must ‘get a grip’ over Manston
asylum-seekers centre, says watchdog
Prison inspector says conditions have ‘significantly
deteriorated’ in last three months
Jamie Grierson
@JamieGrierson
Tue 1 Nov
2022 00.01 GMT
Conditions
at a controversy-hit centre for asylum seekers have “significantly
deteriorated” in the last three months, a watchdog has warned, urging the Home
Office to “get a grip” on the escalating problems.
Charlie
Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, said an inspection of the Manston
short-term holding centre in July revealed early signs of risks materialising,
including asylum seekers being held for far longer than was appropriate for the
site.
Manston is
at the heart of an overcrowding scandal with the home secretary, Suella
Braverman, under pressure over reports she ignored legal advice that the
government was detaining asylum seekers at the site for unlawfully long
periods.
The Sunday
Times reported that Braverman had been told to transfer the asylum seekers from
Manston to hotels to ease the pressure but she refused.
In his
report published on Tuesday, Taylor revealed that even back in July asylum
seekers were being “crowded” into a single facility and exhausted detainees
were sleeping on floor mats, and prevented from going into the fresh air
despite some lengthy stays.
Taylor said
while there were some improvements noted in July at Manston and other
facilities, risks remained.
“When I
visited Manston in September, some of these risks had begun to materialise and
I met detainees who had been held for more than four days in a facility that
was not designed for overnight stays and in which there was no access to the
open air,” he said.
“I was also
concerned that there were still no mobile phones available, which meant that
many detainees, including some who were very young, had been unable to contact
their families.
“Recent
intelligence from a number of credible sources, including the independent chief
inspector of borders and immigration, the independent monitoring boards and
staff associations, suggest that the current situation at Manston has
significantly deteriorated since our July inspection.
“We are
hearing that detainees are now being held in greater numbers and for much
longer periods of time in cramped and uncomfortable conditions, often
supervised by staff who have not been suitably trained.
“As a
result of these concerns, the inspectorate is planning a swift return to
Manston and will expect to see substantial improvements. In the meantime, the
Home Office and its contractors need to get a grip and urgently act on the
findings of this report to make sure all detainees are held in safe, decent and
humane conditions.”
Taylor’s
report said that there had been “considerable improvements” since inspections
of short-term holding facilities in early 2020, which found hundreds of wet and
cold people were forced to spend hours in cramped containers on a
“rubble-strewn building site”.
But
concerns were raised in the report with Manston and other facilities at Western
Jet Foil and Lydd airport.
Manston, on
a disused airfield site near Ramsgate in Kent, is supposed to be a short-term
holding facility where immigration documents are issued and some people begin
the asylum screening process. They are only meant to stay for a maximum of 24
hours. While there is food, water, showers and toilets, the prisons watchdog
said there are no beds or access to fresh air and exercise.
The report
found “some aspects of governance were weak, especially in safeguarding and
healthcare” with some asylum seekers denied access to mobile phones and others
“inexplicably” not allowed to close toilet doors fully.
It said
length of detention was far too long, often more than 24 hours and sometimes
far in excess of this. The longest recorded detention of a child was 48 hours,
which the inspectorate added was “unacceptable”.
“It was
particularly disappointing once again to see exhausted detainees forced to
sleep on floor mats between rows of seats or on wooden benches,” the report
said, later adding: “Detainees could not go outside for fresh air regardless of
the length of detention.”
The
inspection also found detainees were searched too many times and not always
with sufficient sensitivity by Home Office staff, while detainees at the
screening building were not allowed to use toilets in private. There were
concerns raised about respect during searches.
“Detainees
were then searched in full view of others, including rub-down searches of women
and children,” the report said.
“Some staff
were abrupt and impatient, including with children. We observed one member of
Border Force staff pulling a young child by the arm with no explanation to
start the rub-down search. The parent of another young child was instructed via
gestures to remove the child’s earrings despite the child experiencing pain and
distress as the parent struggled to do this.”
Last week,
another watchdog, the chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal,
said that during a visit to Manston he had met families who had been at the
facility for more than a month.
A Home
Office spokesperson said: “We welcome the report’s finding that there have been
considerable improvements to the infrastructure and processes in place to
accommodate record numbers of people arriving in the UK illegally via small
boats.
“As a
result of these numbers, our asylum system has been put under incredible
strain, but we recognise there is more to do to provide alternative
accommodation for people arriving in the UK. We continue to work hard to
resolve the current pressures at Manston as an urgent priority.
“Manston
remains resourced and equipped to process migrants securely, and we will
provide alternative accommodation as soon as possible.”
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