Migrants including babies still held in ‘very poor’ conditions, inspectors say

Lone child asylum seekers and women who said they were raped by people traffickers are among migrants being held in “very poor” and potentially dangerous conditions, inspectors wrote in a new report.

The Home Office has insisted that it has made “significant improvements” to how Channel migrants are detained.

But despite “some limited progress” by the department, the report published on Thursday says, migrants still experience “very poor conditions and treatment” after they reach the coast of Kent in flimsy and overcrowded boats.

Inspectors had recently visited Tug Haven in Dover Western Docks, Kent Intake Unit (KIU) in Dover’s port, and Frontier House in Folkestone.

Both the Inspectorate of Prisons and the Dover and Heathrow Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) visited the migrant detention facilities in the last three months. The volunteers were tasked by ministers to report on conditions.

Inspectors said women who reported that they had been raped by people smugglers were “not adequately supported” on arrival in the UK.

They said they were “concerned by inadequate follow-up care” for two women who said they had been raped and another woman who said she had been sold into domestic servitude.

A Home Office spokesperson said since these inspections, “we have continued to improve facilities and are opening new secure facilities”.

“Significant” safeguarding issues were posed by lone children being held with adults that are not related to them in crowded detention centres with limited space and sanitary facilities, according to the findings published on Thursday.

For example, a man who was an ex-offender and was considered to pose a “medium risk of harm to the public was held together [at KIU] with unrelated children” – the report says.

Migrants – including families with young children – are also held for more than 24 hours in tents when arriving at the Tug Haven initial processing area.

Injuries that a number of the migrants had sustained during their journeys, including serious burns and bruises, were not detected by staff or properly treated – a separate assessment of conditions found.

Inspectors said that the injuries could also have been missed at KIU and Frontier House, where migrants are later taken.

One 16-year-old girl had fuel burns on her legs and had been at Tug Haven for two days wearing wet clothes, the report said. Her injuries were spotted she was admitted to the KIU, but by this time the seam of her clothes had merged with her burns.

A medic reported that the girl was “likely to be scarred for life.”

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said: “Our last inspection in September 2020 found that these facilities were badly equipped to meet their purpose.

“... However, despite some limited progress, detainees, including large numbers of unaccompanied children, continued (in 2021) to experience very poor treatment and conditions.

“It is unclear why there had been such delays following the assurances that we were given by the Home Office after our last inspection.

“Leaders told us of difficulties in co-ordinating the various partners whose co-operation was required, but this was not a sufficient explanation for why, one year later, we still found people being held for even longer in conditions that were so inadequate.”

National IMBs chair Dame Anne Owers, who was so concerned by the findings from her counterparts in Kent that she raised them with Home Office ministers, said: “It is clear that urgent action is required.”

IMBs had visited Tug Haven on the “least busy day” between 8 October and 11 when 400 people slept there overnight.

Inspectors said there were dry clothes and food for migrants – but they raised concerns over babies, children, and potentially vulnerable adults being held at Tug Haven overnight in “increasingly cold conditions”, particularly on double-decker buses sometimes used for sleeping.

The findings also raised problems with migrants being then moved to the Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) which “lacked either the infrastructure or staff” to support many new arrivals.

On one night, four coaches of detainees arrived and had to sleep on the floor, inspectors found.

Inspectors described the conditions at the IRC as “unacceptable and degrading but unavoidable, given the lack of regard to the centre’s ability to process arrivals”.

Mr Taylor’s report said about 2,000 people, including more than 700 lone children, had been held at KIU or Frontier House in the three months prior to October and November “for an average of more than 26 hours”.

The report added: “The longest detained person was held for over four days and the longest detained child had been held for over 90 hours.”

The Home Office did not keep records on how long people had spent at Tug Haven, the report also says.

The Independent approached the Home Office for comment, and a spokesperson released a statement that referred to the deaths of at least 27 asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, in the Channel in November.

They said: “Last month’s tragedy is a devastating reminder of the dangers of Channel crossings and that’s why we are overhauling our broken asylum system to protect lives and ensure people smugglers can’t profit from this crime.

“We take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously and since these inspections we have continued to improve facilities and are opening new secure facilities.

“The New Plan for Immigration is the only long-term solution to reform the system and build one which is fair on those who play by the rules, and firm on those who do not.”