No 10 has distanced itself from a Home Office minister’s remarks that it is “a bit of cheek” for asylum seekers to complain about the conditions at immigration processing centres.
The government has come under criticism for allowing 4,000 people to be held at the Manston centre, a short-term holding facility in Kent, which is designed to hold no more than 1,600 asylum seekers for only a few days.
The policing minister, Chris 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.”
He also said asylum seekers from Manston who were left stranded in London earlier this week had told immigration officials they had addresses to go to.
But when asked if Philp was speaking for the government, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “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.”
The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, is understood to have written to local MPs to update them on the next steps for delivering new immigration removal centres in Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Both sites are expected to open at the end of 2023, housing 1,000 men between the two locations, according to a Home Office contract notice.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “These new facilities will provide safe, secure accommodation with dedicated health facilities on site and will play an important role in efforts to control our borders, process cases and remove those with no right to be in the UK, while ensuring those going through our asylum system are treated with compassion, dignity and respect.”
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said Philp’s comments “reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston”.
The veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said in his opinion it was not a “cheek” to say children and women should be “treated humanely”.
Harrowing images have shown people reaching out through packed barricades, sleeping on floor mats and cold and hungry children sharing blankets.
Philp said there had been a “misunderstanding” that had led to people arriving in London from Manston without accommodation or warm clothing, resulting in them sleeping rough.
He insisted the Manston site was now legally compliant, despite his comments coming two days after Jenrick suggested it was not.
A group of 11 asylum seekers from Manston were left at Victoria railway station on Tuesday evening with nowhere to stay, without winter coats and many of them in flip-flops, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The Westminster city council Labour leader, Adam Hug, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he believed the 11 people who arrived at Victoria had slept rough overnight, adding: “Clearly there has been a breakdown in communication”.
Hug said the “chaos” of the situation means local services and charities were “having to pick up the slack”.
Other council leaders have criticised the government’s approach to Manston. Stephen Evans, the chief executive of Norwich council, said the Home Office did not give its officials any warning that asylum seekers from Manston were being bussed into the city on Thursday.
Speaking to Today, Evans said he first read about the group coming to Norwich in a news article. “We hadn’t been told. I checked back with colleagues at city hall – they hadn’t been told. So we don’t know who they are and we don’t know where they’ve gone to in the city,” he said.
“I think that’s part of the problem here. As a sector, councils are asking for early engagement from the Home Office and for us to be consulted.”
Responding to Philp’s comments, Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “These comments are misguided and fail to acknowledge the appalling conditions at Manston that MPs and the government’s own inspectorates as well as many others have described as alarming and wretched.
“The fact remains there is nothing illegal about crossing the Channel to claim asylum in the UK. This is a fundamental right enshrined in the UN refugee convention, that the UK was one of the founding signatories of.”
Tim Naor Hilton, Refugee Action’s chief executive, said: “Chris Philp’s comments not only reflect the refusal by the government to accept responsibility for the humanitarian crisis at Manston but also the callous attitude of ministers to people who urgently need protection.
“The casual use of language by ministers like Chris Philp which devalues and dehumanises the experiences of people seeking asylum creates a context of fear and hatred that could have catastrophic consequences, like the tragic attack in Dover last weekend.”
