Migrants “deserve to be treated with compassion and respect”, Downing Street has stressed. Rishi Sunak’s spokesman made the statement after a Home Office minister criticised the “cheek” of people arriving in the country “illegally” complaining about the conditions in processing.
The line from No 10 appeared to be an attempt to distance itself from the controversial comments made by policing minister Chris Philp amid overcrowding chaos at the Manston holding centre in Kent. In remarks described by one Liberal Democrat MP as "shocking and callous", Mr Philp told Times Radio: “If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily, it is a bit, you know, it’s a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions when you’ve illegally entered a country without necessity.”
At one point as many as 4,000 people were being detained for weeks at Manston, a site intended to hold 1,600 for a matter of days. Mr Sunak's spokesman said he had not spoken to the Prime Minister "specifically" about Mr Philp's comments.
But he added: "Certainly it is true that Home Office border force officials and many others are working hard to provide safe, secure accommodation for those individuals that come via these routes. As we’ve been clear, those individuals deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.
“Obviously the current approach is not working and it is placing huge pressures – both in terms of on the Government and on the local area – and that is presenting significant challenges, which is why we continue to work both with French colleagues and more broadly to try and resolve this issue."
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said Mr Philp’s comments “reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston.”
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale told the PA news agency he could see where Mr Philp was “coming from” in respect to people “perfectly capable of fending for themselves” crossing the Channel to the UK. But he said in his opinion it is not a “cheek” to say children and women should be “treated humanely”.
Downing Street said the number of people at Manston has fallen to 2,600, with 1,200 taken off the site within the last four days. Sir Roger said the aim is to reduce the number to 1,500 by the end of the day, which would bring it under its maximum capacity of 1,600.
The Home Secretary toured immigration centres on Thursday as she battled to grip the migrant crisis and in the face of threats of legal action over Manston, sexual assault allegations at a hotel housing asylum seekers and international criticism of her use of language. Suella Braverman, who was reinstated to her ministerial post just over a week ago, met Border Force teams in Dover to discuss Channel crossings operations before visiting the scandal-hit Manston processing centre to hear updates from staff but dodged questions from the press.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary has taken urgent decisions to alleviate issues at Manston using all the legal powers available and sourcing alternative accommodation. The welfare of those in our care is of the utmost importance and asylum seekers are only released from Manston when they have assured us that they have accommodation to go to – to suggest otherwise is wrong and misleading.”
