Diphtheria outbreak confirmed at asylum seeker centre in Kent

People sleep close together on the ground at Manston, which was was originally designed for only 1,000 inhabitants. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

There has been an outbreak of diphtheria at an asylum seeker processing centre at a former MoD site in Kent.

The Home Office refused to confirm the number of cases of diphtheria at Manston – an airfield in Ramsgate providing tented accommodation for about 3,000 people who have arrived in the UK on small boats – but said the number was “very small”.