More than 100 charities have signed an open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, urging her to create a “kind and effective system” for asylum seekers in the UK.
It comes amid growing concern about the Manston immigration detention centre in Kent, which was discovered to be housing more than twice the number of people it was supposed to.
This problem has been exacerbated by this weekend’s petrol bomb attack on the Dover Tug Haven asylum site, which has resulted in the transfer of hundreds of people to the Manston processing centre.
The facility was overwhelmed on Sunday night, with a reported 4,000 being housed there – it was initially intended to house 1,600 to be moved on and processed within 24 hours.
Home Office minister Robert Jenrick visited Manston yesterday and admitted the situation there was “intolerable“.
Today I visited Manston to thank Home Office teams who continue to process migrants securely in challenging conditions.
Over 1,000 migrants crossing the Channel yesterday creates immense pressure. I was hugely impressed by the staff I met, managing this intolerable situation.
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 30, 2022
Mrs Braverman has been accused of failing to help solve Manston’s overcrowding problem. It was reported by The Times this weekend that she refused to approve new hotels where asylum seekers could be sent. It was said she ignored legal advice people should be moved.
On conditions at the site, the Refugee Council said one boy had contracted scabies having stayed at the Manston facility for 19 days in “inhumane” conditions.
The Home Office confirmed a small outbreak of diphtheria, a contagious bacterial infection that can prove fatal if it goes untreated, at the Kent site earlier in October.
The letter from charities reads: “Home secretary when you talk of ‘safe and legal routes’, you must be aware that it is impossible to ask refugees to come exclusively through such a path when even Afghan interpreters who are eligible for one of our few existing schemes remain in hiding from the Taliban.
“When you talk of ‘illegal migrants’, you must be aware that the top nationalities of people making dangerous journeys include Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria, and that at least 97% of asylum claims made by people from these countries are successful.
“When you question the existence of ‘modern slavery’, you must be aware that you are dismantling your own party’s proud and internationally-recognized achievement in protecting the survivors of trafficking.
“And when you complain about the cost of housing asylum seekers, you must be aware that, while people seeking safety did not choose to leave their homelands, they are willing to work and keen to contribute, if only the law permitted them.
“You have referred to this country’s proud history of offering sanctuary, so we ask you to make this happen with a fair, kind, and effective system for refugees.
“Deal with the backlog in asylum cases, create safe routes, respect international law, and the UN convention on refugees, and give refugees a fair hearing, however they get here. Then you would have really done something worth dreaming about.”
The letter, co-ordinated by charity IMIX and coalition campaign Together With Refugees, was signed by groups such as Choose Love, Christian Aid, City of Sanctuary UK, Doctors of the World, English National Opera, Freedom from Torture, Good Chance Theatre, JCORE, Jesuit Refugee Service, Rainbow Migration, Refugee Action, Refugee Council, Scottish Refugee Council, Safe Passage and Save the Children.