Small boat migrants being held at Home Office processing centre for a week amid ‘pressure cooker’ atmosphere

Asylum seekers arriving on small boats are being held for up to a week at a processing site in Kent where poor facilities are contributing to a “pressure cooker” atmosphere, a union has warned

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) alleged that the former RAF base at Manston had run out of food and water on some days, and that migrants were being kept in crowded tents with “inadequate” bedding, mould and bacteria.

When the construction of the facility was announced in December, the Home Office said it would be able to hold migrants for “up to five days as security and identity checks are completed”.

But the POA said that following a large number of small boat crossings in September, a target of detaining asylum seekers for between 24 and 48 hours had become “purely aspirational” and many were staying for up to a week.

A member likened the situation to a “pressure cooker coming to the boil with a jammed release valve”, because issues including a lack of Home Office accommodation are delaying the ability to move people on.

“We have had reports of incidents escalating, altercations between residents boiling over and resulting in injury with police having to be called to the site to investigate assaults and provide support to staff,” a POA spokesperson said.

“The POA believes the failure to relieve this pressure sits at the highest level with a government that has not provided a coherent response at pace, to the increase in numbers of migrants crossing the channel and the strain that is putting on the facility.

“A high-level solution must be found to move residents on in a timely manner and allow Manston to return to its core function, a short-term holding facility.”

Lucy Moreton, of the ISU union which represents Border Force staff, said she had not heard of food and water shortages but was aware of other issues raised by the POA.

“It is correct that migrants are again remaining on site for, on occasion, several weeks,” she told The Independent.

“The site is not designed or set up for anything more than a very short term stay. Nothing about the site is adequate for more than a day or so.”

Ms Moreton said there have been violent incidents, some involving improvised weapons, and that three Home Office staff have been injured.

“The government urgently needs to procure additional resource upstream so that migrants can be moved into more suitable accommodation,” she added.

Kent Police said it had recorded two recent incidents at the site. A man was arrested on suspicion of assault after allegedly throwing a plastic bottle at another man on Sunday.

Officers had also attended late on 28 September “to assist the Home Office following a report a small group of people were being abusive” but no arrests were made.

The Home Office denied that there had been a lack of food and water and said suitable welfare provisions, including hot food, fresh clothing, toilet facilities and medical care, were provided. It said the site was under control and had sufficient capacity.

A spokesperson added: “The continued rise in dangerous small boat crossings is causing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system.

“Manston is resourced and equipped to process migrants securely and we will provide alternative accommodation as soon as possible.”

Almost 8,000 migrants crossed the English Channel on small boats in September alone, with the total for 2022 running at a record of more than 33,000.

The Care4Calais charity accused the government of “deliberately under-resourcing” reception facilities for political reasons.

“We agree that the failure sits at the highest level of government,” founder Clare Moseley added.

“If asylum claims were processed quickly and efficiently, the many thousands of people wasting their lives in hotels could be working and contributing to our communities.”

The Detention Action group called the conditions at Manston “shameful”.

Deputy director James Wilson added: “For all her empty rhetoric, the new home secretary is delivering the same failed picies as her predecessor, with the same disastrous outcomes.

“Until people are offered safe ways to seek asylum and can have their claims processed efficiently in our communities, this chaos will continue.”

The POA has written a letter to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons voicing concerns about safety, decency and calling for an urgent inspection.

The union, which represents officers who work at Manston and then escort asylum seekers onwards to official accommodation, said it had hoped the site would offer “significant improvement” on the Tug Haven facility previously used in Dover.

An inspection published in July by the borders watchdog, which predated the establishment of the Manston site, revealed a chaotic picture as security and vulnerability checks on arriving asylum seekers were missed.

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) warned of a “system failure” at processing sites in Kent and said the government’s response had been “both ineffective and inefficient”.

Chief inspector David Neal said that over three years of rising Channel crossings, the Home Office had failed “to move from a crisis response to having better systems and procedures in place and treating this as business as usual”.

A Home Office response to the report hailed the opening of the Manston processing facility and claimed that many issues found by the ICIBI were “now of a historic character”.

“We accepted the recommendations and have been committed to resolving the issues identified, which we believe to be now almost completely addressed,” the document claimed.

“The transformation of the UK operation across Tug Haven, Western Jetfoil and now Manston has continued since the inspection, representing a fundamental change in approach, in terms of the infrastructure, resourcing and logistics.”