Home secretary Suella Braverman has arrived at the Manston immigration centre in a Chinook helicopter amid mounting pressure to get a grip on overcrowding at the site.
A Chinook helicopter costs £3,500 per hour to fly, according to the UK Defence Journal, and has a top speed of around 188mph according to its manufacturer, Boeing. Downing Street defended the use of the military helicopter, saying Ms Braverman had “travelled on a military aircraft to see the area of operations at sea”.
The media have not been given access to the visit, and Ms Braverman will not be taking questions from journalists. Instead, the Home Office is expected to issue a statement following the trip.
The home secretary visited the Western Jet Foil site in Dover – which was hit by a firebomb attack last weekend – on Thursday morning, before visiting the town’s coastguard. She was pictured onboard a UK Border Force boat before making her way to the immigration processing facility in Manston by helicopter.
It would have taken the home secretary around 40 minutes to travel from Dover to Manston by car.
Ms Braverman was transferred from the Chinook helicopter to a black BMW with tinted windows as she and her entourage arrived at the gates in Manston, being let straight through by security.
A No 10 spokesperson said: “The home secretary was in Dover to receive an update on operations on the ground. That obviously involved operations in the Channel. She travelled on a military aircraft to see the area of operations at sea.”
The Manston centre is only meant to hold 1,600 people, but around 4,000 asylum seekers were on the site over the weekend. Hundreds of refugees were forced to sleep on pieces of cardboard on plywood floors because there are no beds to accommodate them.
One female asylum seeker who was at Manston is now taking legal action against Ms Braverman. A pre-action legal letter sent on her behalf argues that the woman was unlawfully detained in “egregiously defective conditions” by Ms Braverman at the overcrowded processing site.
James Wilson, the deputy director of Detention Action, which is assisting the woman, said that the legal action has been initiated “out of serious concern for the welfare of thousands of people including children, still being detained at Manston for a period far beyond legal limits”.
