Suella Braverman, centre, in Dover on Thursday
(Picture: PA)The small boat migrant crisis is causing “disbelief” among the British people, a minister admitted today — amid new claims that asylum seekers are being dumped by the Home Office at Victoria station.
Graham Stuart, the Environment Minister, said the “unprecedented surge” of arrivals this year to around 40,000 was imposing an “immense burden” on public services and leaving the “system struggling to cope”.
He added that the situation was unacceptable, saying that “none of us are comfortable with it”, and suggested that the crisis is leaving the public struggling to understand or accept what was taking place.
“We’ve seen this unacceptable surge in small boats. The system is struggling to cope,” Mr Stuart said.
“Thousands more hotel rooms have been sorted out, but it’s unacceptable to the British people and we need to do more to tackle what is an unprecedented surge.
“None of us are comfortable with it. We want it tackled, we want to get a grip. Behind this are all these illegal gangs and British people look on it with disbelief.”
Mr Stuart’s comments came as a homelessness charity claimed that 11 migrants found at Victoria bus station without accommodation after being sent there from the Manston reception centre in Kent were not isolated cases.
Danial Abbas, from Under One Sky, said the migrants were “disorientated, lost, pretty disturbed” when they arrived on Tuesday evening and that his charity had been told that others were being similarly released from Manston without anywhere to go.
“One of the guys was in so much pain that he could only stand up or walk, he couldn’t really sit down or lie down.”
“Accounts of British Transport Police present at Victoria Station said that this has been happening since Saturday, Care 4 Calais [another charity helping migrants] also provided a similar account, they’ve also said that buses from Manston are going left right and centre. It doesn’t seem to be an error so much as something that’s been happening on a sustained basis.”
The Home Office insisted, however, that the migrants found at Victoria had only been sent from Manston after telling officials that they had accommodation to go to and that people were not being released from the reception centre to fend for themselves.
A spokesman added that the Victoria migrants had swiftly been found hotel accommodation once their plight had been discovered. “We worked at pace to find accommodation for the individuals as soon as we were notified, and they are now in accommodation and being supported,” a spokesman said.
As Home Secretary Suella Braverman prepared to visit Manston today, ministers were forced to try to patch up relations with Albania after the country’s prime minister Edi Rama accused the Government of trying to blame his citizens for its own “failed” policies.
Describing Ms Braverman’s claim that Britain is suffering a small boats “invasion”, including large numbers from Albania, as “crazy”, Mr Rama told BBC’s Newsnight that it was impossible not to react to the comments. “This kind of language is not a policy, is not a programme,” he said “It’s not about Albanians or aliens or gangsters, but it’s about failed policies on borders and on crime.”
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said, however, that it remained “correct that a quarter of people who’ve come in small boats have come from Albania this year and the National Crime Agency has said that a very significant proportion of serious organised crime is emanating from those individuals.”
The crisis at Manston was projected into public view when the Chief Inspector of Borders, David Neal, told MPs last week that he had been left “speechless” by conditions there and by the unlawful length of time that migrants are being kept there. Around 4,000 migrants were being held there at the time, but the total is now understood to have fallen by about 1,000 after the Home Office accelerated efforts to find accommodation.
That means that the numbers at Manston are roughly double its capacity. Ministers hope to bring the total down to an appropriate level within a week, but claims for compensation are expected, however, with reports today suggesting that the first legal letter seeking redress has been received.
