The government has conceded that the asylum processing centre at Manston in Kent is not operating legally, after the immigration minister said legal action had begun on behalf of some of those held there.
The centre is supposed to hold a maximum of 1,600 people, and each for just 24 hours while initial checks are made. However, up to 4,000 have been at the centre, some staying in terrible conditions for weeks.
Asked if he believed it was acceptable that asylum seekers were being detained illegally at Manston, Graham Stuart, the climate minister, told Sky News: “Obviously not. None of us are comfortable with it. We want it tackled, we want to get a grip, that’s exactly what the home secretary is focused on.”
He said the asylum system was “struggling to cope” with a wave of arrivals across the Channel in small boats. “It is not where we want it to be right now and we are simply looking to balance that out. Thousands more hotel rooms have been sorted out but it’s unacceptable to the British people and we need to do more to tackle the traffickers in what is an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration.”
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was due to visit Dover later on Thursday. She is under pressure over repeated reports saying she ignored legal advice about the situation in Manston, and the possibility that people held there too long could take court action.
Speaking to Sky on Wednesday evening, Robert Jenrick, the Home Office minister responsible for immigration, said the government had received “initial contact for a judicial review” over events at Manston, but could not give further details for legal reasons.
Such action was “not unusual” as it concerned a “highly litigious area of policy”, he added.
Braverman, who is also under scrutiny over her use of a personal phone for government documents, which led to her sacking as home secretary during the Liz Truss government before Rishi Sunak restored her to the role, has been accused of allowing the situation at Manston to spiral out of control, and of defending herself with intemperate language about migrants.
It has emerged that 11 asylum seekers from Manston were left at Victoria railway station on Tuesday evening with nowhere to stay, without winter coats, many of them in flip-flops.
In his interview with Sky, Stuart appeared to distance himself somewhat from Braverman’s rhetoric, which has included referring to “an invasion” of migrants during a Commons debate on Monday, and a separate reference to the apparent problem of “Albanian criminals”.
Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, hit back, saying the UK was falsely targeting nationals from his country “as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems”.
Stuart told Sky: “I’m grateful for the work we’re doing with the Albanians, they have been sending senior police officers over so as to speed up processing, we’ve got an expedited system to return Albanians if it turns out they are not legitimate asylum seekers.
“So we are trying to work in cooperation, but clearly there’s pressure. You can see it from councillors, you can see it from members of parliaments, you can hear it from people and journalists around the country. It can lead to language which is sometimes unfortunate, and it is worth putting on record our gratitude to the Albanian government for their cooperation in working to sort this out.”
