Channel migrants continue to be held in “very poor” conditions after arriving on the Kent coast despite the Home Office promising that “significant improvements” had been made.
Women who reported that they had been raped by their smugglers were “not adequately supported”, and lone children were being held with unrelated adults, according to inspectors.
The findings were published on Thursday, December 16 alongside a separate review which found that injuries, including serious burns, were not detected and properly treated by staff.
Highlighting one case, the assessment said that a “16-year-old girl who had fuel burns on her legs and had been at Tug Haven for two days wearing wet clothes did not have her injuries detected until she was admitted to the KIU.
"By this time the seam of her clothes had become embedded into the burns and a medic reported that the girl was likely to be scarred for life.”
Families with young children were described as among the many to spend more than 24 hours in tents when they arrived at the initial processing area in Tug Haven, Dover.
The report also revealed that there were “significant” safeguarding concerns over unaccompanied children being “regularly held together” with other men, women and families in the same area.
The migrant detention facilities were visited in the last three months by both the Inspectorate of Prisons and the Dover and Heathrow Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB).
The groups are made up of volunteers tasked by ministers to report on conditions in the detention facilities.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said: “Our last inspection in September 2020 found that these facilities were badly equipped to meet their purpose.
“Following that inspection, we were assured by the Home Office that rapid action would be taken to improve both strategic planning and the conditions in which detainees were held.
"However, despite some limited progress, detainees, including large numbers of unaccompanied children, continued (in 2021) to experience very poor treatment and conditions.
“It is unclear why there had been such delays following the assurances that we were given by the Home Office after our last inspection.
"Leaders told us of difficulties in co-ordinating the various partners whose co-operation was required, but this was not a sufficient explanation for why, one year later, we still found people being held for even longer in conditions that were so inadequate.”
National IMB chairman Dame Anne Owers, was so concerned by the findings from her counterparts in Kent that she raised them with Home Office ministers,
Dame Owers said: “It is clear that urgent action is required.”
The IMBs visited Tug Haven on the “least busy day” between October 8 and 11 when 400 people were sleeping there overnight.
IMBs raise concerns over "very poor" migrant detention centre conditions
Concerns were raised over the following:
- The “increasingly cold conditions”, especially on the double-decker buses that are sometimes used for sleeping
- Children, including toddlers, babies and vulnerable adults who are being held at Tug Haven overnight
- An “increasing number of injuries among migrants”, including fuel burns, cuts and bruises on feet, which were not noticed at Tug Haven and also could be missed at Kent Intake Unit (KIU) and Frontier House, where migrants are later taken
- Delays in providing a promised new facility
- The Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), where many migrants have been moved, is said to "[lack] either the infrastructure or staff” to support the arrivals.
IMBs refer to one case where four coaches arrived and detainees were forced to sleep on the floor without proper sanitary arrangements.
The conditions were described as “unacceptable and degrading but unavoidable, given the lack of regard to the centre’s ability to process arrivals”.
Four coaches arrived and detainees were forced to sleep on the floor without proper sanitary arrangements
The report said about 2,000 people, including more than 700 lone children, had been held at Kent Intake Unit (KIU) or Frontier House in the three months prior to October and November “for an average of more than 26 hours”.
“The longest detained person was held for over four days and the longest detained child had been held for over 90 hours,” the findings added.
The Home Office has been contacted by the Press Association for comment.
Latest figures from Wednesday show UK authorities rescued or intercepted 36 people from one event.
Processing site for migrants in Kent ‘unworkable and unacceptable’
The report comes after criticisms made by a Conservative MP over plans for a Kent military base to operate as a processing site for arriving migrants.
The military base in Manston, Kent, chosen by the Home Office was described as “unworkable and unacceptable” by the constituency’s MP, Sir Roger Gale.
On Tuesday, the Home Office confirmed that a part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) site in Manston, Kent, will be used as a “processing site for illegal migrants by January 2022”.
The secure site will be used to hold people “for a maximum of five days while their security and initial asylum processing checks are undertaken”.
Sir Roger Gale, told the House of Commons the site was “inappropriate”.
Asking an urgent question, the MP for North Thanet said “there is no indication as to how the site will accommodate these human beings, will be made secure or what facilities will be made available, other than statutory (rules) on the site medical services”.
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