An Afghan family with young children have been detained in a tent for a month because of the Home Office’s “chaotic” response to Channel crossings, MPs have been told.
Officials appearing before the Home Affairs Committee admitted that asylum seekers were being kept at a holding facility intended for 24-hour periods for weeks after arriving on small boats.
The hearing was told that almost 3,000 people were being detained at a former RAF base at Manston, Kent, where cases of diphtheria and scabies have been reported.
There are no cooking facilities and some asylum seekers are sleeping on mats on the floor, because the Home Office has no accommodation to move them into while their claims are processed.
David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, told the committee that he was left “speechless” by what he witnessed during a visit on Monday and immediately wrote to the home secretary and prisons watchdog.
“I spoke to an Afghan family who had been in a marquee for 32 days, with kit mats on the floor and blankets,” he said, describing the children as “young”.
Mr Neal said he spoke to Iraqi and Syrian families who had been at Manston for weeks, with one mother “terribly distressed because she didn’t know where they were going”.
“These are wretched conditions,” he added. “It’s a really dangerous situation, it’s failing to address vulnerability.
“There are risks there in terms of fire, disorder, medical issues and infection … there are 2,500 people not guarded by appropriately trained people. No prison in the country holds that many people.”
Mr Neal said on the day he visited Manston only 78 migrants were transferred out and the average was 137, but hundreds were arriving.
Dan O’Mahoney, the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander appointed by Priti Patel to coordinate the response to Channel crossings, admitted that more than 3,000 people had been held at Manston at some points and some had been held there for a month.
“We are trying to increase the amount of accommodation [to move people to], that is our main priority to solve the problem,” he added.
It is unclear whether the arrangement is legal, with Mr O’Mahoney saying the “rules allow for 24 hours” detention.
MPs were told that Grant Shapps signed off on the procurement of new hotels to house asylum seekers during his days in post, but that the available supply was “getting shorter”.
The drive will increase the cost of hotels, which are currently costing £5.6m a day for asylum seekers and £1.2m a day for resettled Afghan refugees – almost £7m in total.
An additional £50m has been spent on the Royal Navy operation to patrol the Channel and coordinate the response, to prevent loss of life and “uncontrolled” boat landings.
More than 38,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in dinghies so far this year, with 93 per cent of those claiming asylum.
The Home Office has changed the law and immigration rules so it can declare asylum applications from people who have passed through safe countries like France “inadmissible” and refuse to consider them, but with the Rwanda deal floundering it has nowhere to send them.
Officials told the Home Affairs Committee that only 4 per cent of claims by 2021 boat arrivals in 2021 had been processed, but 85 per cent of those applications were granted.
