Government to face judicial review as concerns grow over site in Kent
The chairs of four Parliamentary committees wrote to the Home Secretary yesterday to express deep concerns about Manston asylum processing centre in Kent. The committee chairs said the conditions at the former military base near Ramsgate may amount to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The 5-page letter (available here) was sent to Suella Braverman by Dame Diana Johnson MP, the chair of the Home Affairs Committee, together with the chairs of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Women and Equalities Committee and the Justice Committee.
Johnson and the other chairs expressed concerns about the conditions of detention at Manston, noting that recent reports suggest there is severe overcrowding, and a lack of appropriate accommodation, catering and medical facilities. Reports say up to 4,000 people were being held at the site, which was originally intended as a short-term holding facility for only around 1,000 to 1,600.
The letter states: "Article 3 ECHR prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, and requires States to ensure that detainees are held in conditions that are compatible with respect for human dignity. Measures should not subject individuals to distress or hardship of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent to detention, and detainees' health and well-being should be adequately secured. Based on the reports we have heard, we are concerned that the severity of conditions at Manston may amount to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR."
The committee chairs also expressed deep concerns at the potentially unlawful length of time that some people have reportedly been held at Manston.
"There appears to be no clear lawful basis for detention of individuals beyond 24 hours in holding rooms (or five days for holding facilities). It would therefore appear that many individuals held at Manston have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty," they said.
In a Parliamentary answer to Diana Johnson published yesterday, immigration minister Robert Jenrick MP confirmed: "Under the Short Term Holding Facility Rules 2018, someone may be held at Manston for up to 24 hours, or longer if authorised by the Secretary of State in exceptional circumstances."
As Dame Diana Johnson and the other chairs noted in their letter, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said last week that he had spoken to an Afghan family who had been held in a marquee at Manston for 32 days.
The committee chairs say the situation at Manston is grave and needs to be swiftly rectified, with proper accommodation provided to those who are being held for longer periods of time.
Immigration minister says work underway to make Manston 'legally compliant'
Robert Jenrick told Sky News yesterday evening that numbers at Manston have fallen very substantially since the weekend, though ITV News noted that he estimated 3,500 people remained there, which is still over double the site's capacity.
Jenrick added when speaking to Sky News: "I think we're on a path now where within a matter of days, assuming we don't see very large numbers of migrants coming across the Channel … I expect Manston will be returned to a well-functioning and legally compliant site very rapidly." He told ITV that he suspects it will take roughly seven days for numbers to drop to an "acceptable level". He added: "We're procuring more hotels in all parts of the country, decanting the migrants from Manston to those as quickly as we can. And once we've done that, we'll be able to restore Manston to the kind of acceptable humane conditions that all of us would want to see."
The immigration minister also confirmed to Sky News that the Home Office is facing a judicial review over the conditions at Manston.
Anushka Asthana, deputy political editor at ITV News, said on Twitter earlier: "Sources tell me that an NGO has started proceedings based around the long detention of an individual."
Asthana added that sources also said Home Office officials are looking into the number of people who may be due compensation because of delays in moving people out of the site.
One immigration lawyer said on Twitter that his client has been detained at Manston for 23 days, with people being held at the site in gated, guarded and overcrowded marquees.
The SOAS Detainee Support group said on Monday that what was happening at Manston was a "humanitarian catastrophe".
The group visited the site on Sunday and reported: "We arrived outside the camp and saw people - men, women, children - behind the barbed wire fences. Security guards ordered them to go inside. The children ran away from them and crawled through a fence to be heard. … Through one of the gated entrances to the camp, we saw a father walking around with his daughter inside a cage, unable to leave. And we saw piles of blue bags containing the belongings confiscated from the detained people upon arrival. The camp is highly securitised and isolated - surrounded by fences, police and security personnel."
Growing backlog of asylum cases
In their letter to the Home Secretary, the chairs of the four Parliamentary committees also asked what the Home Office is doing to urgently reduce the backlog in cases currently within the asylum system.
The backlog of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision is now over 100,000 and the Committee chairs noted in their letter that the Home Office's 'work in progress' asylum caseload is currently over 160,000.
They said: "We are deeply concerned that 96% of the asylum claims from 2021 have not been completed and individuals are still awaiting decisions. Only 4% of those who arrived by boat in 2021 have had a decision on their claim. The Home Office 'work in progress' caseload stands at 166,085, which is nearly double the figure in June 2020 and a significant increase since June 2021."
An earlier Home Affairs Committee report from 2017 shows the scale of the growth in the 'work in progress' asylum caseload over the past ten years, In 2012, it stood at 37,381.
BBC News has an explainer here from yesterday on what lies behind the growth in the backlog.
It notes: "Eight years ago, nine out of 10 asylum claims were being processed within six months. But by late 2018 - four years ago - just a quarter of claims were receiving their initial decision within that target. … By June of last year, just 6% of all claims were being dealt with within a six-month window."