They are so exhausted' Inside a site processing the small boats arrivals

Inside a site processing the small boats arrivals

- Diane Taylor

When asylum seekers first arrive at Manston, a former military base outside Ramsgate in Kent, they are ushered from one enormous, grubby marquee to the next for a series of interviews and checks.

As many as 1,000 people are processed at the site each day after crossing the Channel in small boats-with interviews happening throughout the night. Upon arriving in the UK-in a state of exhaustion and disorientation-their phones and other belongings are taken from them and placed in distinctive blue plastic bags.

Signs flash up on TV screens in various languages. "You have entered the UK illegally from a safe country, France. As a result you will not be able to obtain citizenship. You will not be able to settle in the UK."

Asylum seekers are only supposed to stay at Manston for 24 hours before being released to hotels, but some stay longer.

In what is thought to be one of the largest class actions of its kind against the Home Office, at least 250 people who were detained at Manston in the second half of 2022 are suing for unlawful detention and other breaches of their rights.

At the time the centre was dangerously overcrowded-accommodating 4,000 people although it was designed to hold a maximum of 1,600-and grappling with outbreaks of infectious diseases including diphtheria and scabies. On 19 November 2022, a Kurdish asylum seeker, Hussein Haseeb Ahmed, who was processed at Manston, died in hospital after contracting diphtheria.

The former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal, has said the poorly managed and insanitary conditions there were so bad he was rendered speechless and documents disclosed in a court action show Home Office officials admitting "we completely lost our grip" on the situation.