MPs raise concerns after finding 56 asylum seekers ‘packed’ into room at intake facility

Published

3 years ago

July 30, 2021

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An MP has written to the home secretary after a committee discovered 56 asylum seekers, including babies and young children, “packed into a small waiting room” at an intake unit.

Chair of the home affairs select committee Yvette Cooper said in a letter to Priti Patel that she was writing to “raise serious concerns about the shocking conditions” found by MPs during a visit to the Kent Intake Unit in Dover.

The facility, where “detained asylum seekers wait for onward placement and screening”, was described as “wholly inappropriate” by the MP.

She wrote: “There were 56 people packed into the small waiting room. The space is clearly unfit for holding this many people.

“Most people were sitting or lying on a thin mattress and those covered almost the entirety of the aisle between seats.

“Sharing these cramped conditions were many women with babies and very young children alongside significant numbers of teenage and young adult men”, she added.

The MPs also found that despite 24 hours being the “maximum period of time” a person should be held in the holding room, some had been kept there for “periods of up to 36 and 48 hours”.

Concerns about COVID-19 outbreaks have been raised as well, with Yvette Cooper saying in her letter that MPs saw the holding room had “no ventilation, no social distancing and face masks are not worn”.

According to the MP, adult asylum seekers must have a lateral flow test and receive a negative result before entering the intake unit.

“However, it is well known that lateral flow tests are not 100% accurate and will not pick up cases that develop over the subsequent 48 hours,” she said.

The committee also said it “did not observe any COVID-19 mitigation measures” and “could not see how the facility could be COVID safe” given the levels of overcrowding.

The MPs went on to visit the atrium facility as well, “where people wait when they are no longer in detention and awaiting onward travel”.

In the letter, it is described as “essentially an office space with a large central room and several adjoining offices”.

In June this year, Kent County Council stopped accepting unaccompanied child migrants and MPs heard that since then there have been “five stays of over 200 hours (10 days) in this office space and increasing numbers of multiple-day stays.”

Ms Cooper noted that the permanent secretary had confirmed to the committee that an unaccompanied child was one of the individuals held in the facility for over 10 days.

She added: “One girl was sleeping on a sofa in an office, as the only available separate sleeping accommodation.

“For children, this kind of accommodation for days on end is completely inappropriate”.

“It is extremely troubling that a situation has been allowed to arise, and persist, where vulnerable children, families and young people are being held in this manifestly inappropriate office space for days and even weeks.”

Over 170 children have been transferred from Kent to another local authority since 14 June 2021.

A government spokesperson said: “The asylum system is being exploited by criminal gangs who facilitate dangerous, unnecessary and illegal small boat crossings.

“Our Nationality and Borders bill will fix this broken system and deter these dangerous and illegal crossings.

“To meet our legal duties temporary accommodation is being used to house asylum-seeking children in safe and secure accommodation before placements can take place through the National Transfer Scheme.

“The Home Office continue to work with all local authorities as well as the Department for Education to ensure needs are met.”

Politics

Keir Starmer talks up US-UK relationship – but questions remain over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles

Published

1 hour ago

September 14, 2024

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Keir Starmer talks up US-UK relationship - but questions remain over Ukraine's use of long-range missiles

Sir Keir Starmer has talked up the US-UK relationship after a White House meeting with Joe Biden, but questions remain over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles.

The prime minister travelled to Washington this week to meet with President Biden to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – among other issues.

Speaking before the “long and productive” meeting held in the White House on Friday, Sir Keir said the two countries were “strategically aligned” in their attempts to resolve the war.

Afterwards, he skirted around questions regarding Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, saying: “We’ve had a long and productive discussion on a number of problems, including Ukraine, as you’d expect, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, talking strategically about tactical decisions.

“This isn’t about a particular decision but we’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA (UN General Assembly) in just a few days’ time with a wider group of individuals, but this was a really important invitation from the president to have this level of discussion about those critical issues.”

Ukraine war latest: Putin threatens NATO with ‘war’

Decisions loom for Ukraine’s key Western allies as Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently increased pressure on them to permit his forces to use long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory.

However, despite repeated calls for a decision, the West has so far resisted green-lighting the use of the missiles.

Two US officials familiar with the discussions said they believed that Sir Keir was seeking US approval to let Ukraine use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes into Russia, according to Reuters news agency.

They added that they believed Mr Biden would be amenable.

The president’s approval would be needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the US.

But when speaking to journalists after the meeting, Sir Keir was repeatedly pressed on the long-range missile question but evaded giving a firm decision.

“This wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability. That wasn’t why we got our heads down today,” he said.

The US has been concerned that any step could lead to an escalation in the conflict and has moved cautiously so far, however, there have been reports in recent days that Mr Biden might shift his administration’s policy.

It wasn’t much, but it’s a start

There wasn’t much to say at the end, but it’s a start.

Both sides in these discussions had spent some time playing down expectations and the Americans were insistent their stance wasn’t changing on Ukraine and long-range missiles.

“Nothing to see here” seemed to be the message.

Only, there clearly was – a glance at the headlines gave that the lie.

It’s not every day a Russian president threatens war with the West.

The UK and US were discussing a change in strategy because they must – anything less would be a dereliction of duty for two leaders pledging a commitment to Ukraine’s fight.

Just ask Kyiv’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Following the meeting, Sir Keir Starmer said they’d talked tactics and strategy.

It will have had missiles, range, and Russian territory at the heart of it.

That is the material change in strategy demanded by Ukraine and supported widely among its backers.

A plan discussed by both sides of the special relationship will now be floated to other, allied nations in an effort to build a coordinated coalition behind a change in strategy.

And they’ll do it against the clock.

There is the unpredictability of the war itself in Ukraine and no less certainty surrounding the political battle at home.

A Trump victory in November’s US election would change the picture – here and there.

Vladimir Putin previously threatened the West, warning that allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory would put Moscow “at war” with NATO.

Speaking to Russian state television, he insisted the decision would “significantly change” the nature of the war.

He added: “This will be their direct participation, and this, of course, will significantly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.

“This will mean that NATO countries, US, European countries are at war with Russia.

“If this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”

When asked about the threats, Mr Biden brushed them aside, saying: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”

There remains some scepticism within the US over the impact that allowing Kyiv to unleash long-range missiles would have.

US officials, according to Reuters, have pointed out that Ukraine already has the capability to strike into Russia using drones, and while US missiles would enhance that they are too costly and limited in number to change the overall picture.