Asylum seekers were handcuffed and restrained after self-harming in scenes of desperation and chaos at a controversial migrant processing centre, The Independent can reveal.
Shocking accounts by Home Office staff and private contractors record fights breaking out over food and overcrowding as the population at Manston climbed towards 4,000 people in October.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws by Liberty Investigates, part of the Liberty civil rights charity, and seen by The Independent, show how staff restrained detainees and locked them in “cell vans” at the former military base in Kent.
The first detailed testimony of the conditions described by the guards include:
The revelations come as the immigration system remains at breaking point, with more than 45,000 asylum seekers living in hotels and a record backlog of over 140,000 undecided claims.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to bring forward new legislation he claims will “stop the boats” in the coming weeks, and has continued to pursue the stalled Rwanda scheme. But critics say the government’s previously attempted “deterrents” have failed, and that it must create safe and legal alternatives to the Channel crossings.
Almost 1,200 migrants arrived in small boats in January, putting Manston in regular use after the government downgraded the legal standards governing detention limits, conditions and healthcare.
In several incidents recorded in October at the height of the overcrowding crisis, officials described handcuffing migrants who were banging their heads against walls, with one man being pinned to the ground, hit with an “elbow strike” and put in leg restraints.
The forms recording these incidents were filled out by custody staff and immigration officers after “use of force incidents”.
Several of the forms note high tensions inside crammed marquees that had been hastily erected to house migrants, sometimes for weeks, after the Home Office failed to set up sufficient accommodation.
At the time, thousands of people were sleeping on mats on the floor while being detained for an indefinite period with few activities, no mobile phones, and limits on communication with the outside world.
An official from the ISU union, which represents Border Force staff, said the conditions had “contributed to the psychological state that leads to people self-harming”.
“It also leads to things like stealing food, rushing doors, organised unrest,” Lucy Moreton, a spokesperson for the union, added. “All of that comes from and is driven by being restrained in conditions which are not designed to meet basic human needs.”
Several of the accounts of incidents describe tensions boiling over into fights and clashes, including between groups of different nationalities.
An officer raised concerns over the standard of medical care after a man was injured in an attack by another detainee on 2 October, writing that the treatment given by an on-site team was “unacceptable” and adding: “More care was given by [a detainee custody officer] than any medic on site … I got the feeling the medics thought he was faking the injury.” The man was later taken to hospital by ambulance.
Manston is a former military base where asylum seekers are housed in tents
On the same day, a different officer working for private contractor Mitie recorded a “very tense” atmosphere and wrote that detainees “seemed very uncertain”.
“A few different residents had asked me if they were leaving tonight and if they are going to a hotel,” the officer wrote. “I was explaining to them that we need to be patient, we don’t know what is happening.”
On 14 October, a detainee who “became irate” after asking staff why they had not been given food was handcuffed and temporarily detained.
The officer involved said he believed the man was “going to cause myself or others harm” after “shouting about the food and that he was not a dog”.
People who arrived on small boats queueing inside Manston on 7 November
