Home secretary Suella Braverman has arrived at Manston immigration centre in a Chinook helicopter amid mounting pressure on her to get a grip on overcrowding at the site.
A Chinook helicopter reportedly costs £3,500 per hour to fly, according to the UK Defence Journal, and has a top speed of 196 mph.
The media has not been given access to the visit and Ms Braverman will not be taking questions from journalists. Instead, the Home Office is expected to issue a statement following the trip.
The home secretary visited the Western Jet Foil site in Dover which was earlier hit by a firebomb attack, on Thursday morning, before visiting the town’s coastguard. She was pictured on board a UK border force boat before then making her way to the immigration processing facility in Manston by helicopter.
It would have taken the home secretary around 40 minutes to travel from Dover to Manston by car.
Ms Braverman was transferred from the Chinook helicopter to a black BMW with tinted windows as she and her entourage arrived at the gates in Manston, being let straight through by security.
Manston centre is only meant to hold 1,600 people but around 4,000 asylum seekers were on site over the weekend. Hundreds of refugees were forced to sleep on pieces of cardboard on plywood floors because there are no beds to accommodate them.
One female asylum seeker who was at Manston is now taking legal action against Ms Braverman. A pre-action legal letter sent on her behalf argues that the woman was unlawfully detained in “egregiously defective conditions” by Ms Braverman at the overcrowded processing site.
James Wilson, deputy director of Detention Action who is making the challenge with the woman, said that they have taken legal action “out of serious concern for the welfare of thousands of people including children, still being detained at Manston for a period far beyond legal limits”.
Downing Street said that the home secretary was using her Dover visit on Thursday to meet Border Force staff and military personnel to discuss operations in the Channel.
They also said that she would “speak with staff and receive an update on the situation on the ground” during her visit to Manston.
The home secretary arrived at Manston by helicopter
The home secretary spoke with staff at Manston processing centre
Ms Braverman is facing legal action from a female asylum seeker who was held in Manston
