Steps being taken to ‘immediately’ improve situation at Manston migrant processing centre, Home Office says
Suella Braverman has confirmed that steps are being taken to “immediately” improve the situation at Manston migration centre, according to the Home Office.
These measures include bolstering the medical facilities currently on-site, supplying extra bedding and improved catering facilities, and providing more activities to support migrant welfare.
The department also confirmed that more than 1,000 people have been moved off the migrant processing site in the last five days.
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Ms Braverman has been criticised over the conditions at Manston, which is designed to hold a maximum of 1,600 people, and they are meant to stay there for up to 24 hours while they undergo checks, but it has been used to house around 3,500 people for weeks.
The overcrowded immigration centre in Kent has become a symbol of the “broken” asylum system the home secretary is under increasing pressure to fix.
Speaking after her visit on Thursday, Ms Braverman said: “I have met with our expert teams who work tirelessly to save lives and protect the UK’s borders. I wanted to see first hand how we’re working to reduce the number of people in Manston, support people there, and thank staff for all their efforts.
“I am incredibly proud of the skill and dedication shown to tackle this challenging situation here on a daily basis. This is a complex and difficult situation, which we need to tackle on all fronts and look at innovative solutions.
“To break the business model of the people smugglers, we need to ensure that the illegal migration route across the Channel is ultimately rendered unviable.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman (circled) arrives at Manston
But the MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke, said it was a “great pity” the home secretary did not meet local MPs and council leaders during her trip to Kent.
“The small boats crisis is not just in the migrant processing facilities, it is on our Kent beaches, schools, services and housing,” she said.
“It’s a great pity that the home secretary wasn’t able to meet with Kent MPs and Kent council leaders to discuss first hand the serious local impact of this issue which Kent leaders have described as at ‘breaking point’.”
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Migrant centres ‘overwhelmed’
Braverman’s visit ‘well received’
The home secretary met Border Force staff in Dover earlier on Thursday to discuss Channel crossings operations before travelling to the processing centre by military helicopter to speak to staff and receive an update on the overcrowding crisis.
She later left the centre in Manston after spending two hours on site.
A Home Office source said that Ms Braverman held a 45-minute question and answer session with staff at the centre which was “well received”.
The home secretary did not take questions from the media during the visit.
Downing Street later defended the home secretary’s use of a military helicopter to travel to Manston.
“The home secretary was in Dover to receive an update on operations on the ground. That obviously involved operations in the Channel. She travelled on a military aircraft to see the area of operations at sea,” a Number 10 spokesperson said.
Several hundred people were moved to Manston over the weekend after an attacker threw petrol bombs at the Western Jet Foil processing centre in Dover on Sunday.
Read more:
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Lawyers on behalf of charity Detention Action and a woman held at Manston are threatening legal action against the home secretary over the conditions.
The charity said an urgent pre-action letter, sent to the Home Office on Tuesday, represented the first action against Ms Braverman around the “unlawful treatment” of people held at the facility.
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Braverman and migrant row explained
Home Office facing a judicial review
Government minister Graham Stuart conceded earlier in the day that Manston was not operating legally and “none of us are comfortable with it”.
Asked whether he was happy that asylum seekers were being detained illegally, he told Sky News: “Obviously not. None of us are comfortable with it. We want it tackled, we want to get a grip, that’s exactly what the home secretary is focused on.”
Hundreds of people have been removed from Manston in recent days, with immigration minister Robert Jenrick expressing hope that it will return to being “legally compliant” soon.
He revealed to Sky News on Wednesday that the Home Office is facing a judicial review over the situation, but insisted that was “not unusual”.
The grim conditions at Manston were laid bare in a letter thrown by a young girl over the perimeter fence to a PA news agency photographer on Wednesday begging for help and comparing it to a “prison”.
The government found itself under further criticism last night after a group of asylum seekers were reportedly left at Victoria station in London without accommodation after being moved from Manston.
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Minister ‘not happy’ with situation at Manston
Kent ‘at breaking point’
Ms Braverman’s visit came after council chiefs across Kent warned the whole county is at “breaking point”, with concerns of far-right violence fuelled by the failure to control the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats.
Meanwhile, the PM’s spokeswoman did not deny reports that the government is trying to negotiate Rwanda-style deportation deals with countries such as Belize, Peru and Paraguay to reduce pressure on the system.
“We do plan to negotiate similar deals with other countries, akin to the Rwanda partnership, but it’s not helpful for us to comment on speculation around potential discussions,” she said.
The contentious Rwanda deal has been delayed by a number of legal challenges, but Ms Braverman is talking to at least three other countries about extending the locations in which asylum seekers could be deported to, according to the Daily Express.
Responding to the report, Eamon Courtenay, the foreign minister of Belize, tweeted that his country “is not in negotiations with the UK or any other country to accept migrants”.
He added: “We will not agree to accept exported migrants. That is inhumane and contrary to international law.”
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Sir Keir Starmer slams the Conservative Party’s Rwanda plan
More Rwanda-style deals planned
Ms Braverman has admitted herself that the asylum system is “broken” and singled Albanians out several times over the past week when discussing the rise in small boat crossings, which she referred to as an “invasion on our southern coast”.
On Wednesday, Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, accused Britain of becoming like a “madhouse” with a culture of “finding scapegoats” during a migration crisis in which “failed policies” are to blame.
Four parliamentary committee chiefs piled further pressure on the home secretary to explain how the government will get a grip on both the situation at Manston and the migrant crisis in general.
In a joint letter to Ms Braverman, the chairs of the Home Affairs Committee, Justice Committee, Joint Committee on Human Rights and Women and Equalities Committee expressed their “deep concerns” over the “dire” conditions at Manston, asking what will be done to address the current situation and avoid overcrowding in future.
While council chiefs in Kent have also written to the home secretary, urging her to stop using the county as an “easy fix”, and have warned they are under “disproportionate pressure” because of Kent’s location.
There are no more school spaces for local children in Year 7 and Year 9 due to the arrival of young refugees, they said.
Labour has accused the government of “losing control of our borders” and said 12 years of Tory leadership is to blame for the “broken system”.
It is an earthquake for the MAGA ecosystem.
Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene were a formidable alliance on the Republican Party’s hard-right flank.
For years, the congresswoman for Georgia embodied the combative, conspiracy-tinged politics that define Trump’s presidency.
She called him “the father of the America First movement,” campaigned to be his running mate, and was quick to defend him.
“David Cameron can kiss my ass,” she told Sky News when asked about the former UK Prime Minister’s concerns about US fading support for Ukraine.
Door-stepped by my colleague Martha Kelner, she said: “We don’t give a crap about your country or your reporting.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars.”
Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner’s encounter with Taylor Greene from earlier this year…
But in recent months, she had expressed concerns about Trump’s involvement in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
It escalated when she stood with victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to demand justice and joined Democrats in demanding a vote on the release of all files.
Just days ago, President Trump told reporters Taylor Greene had “lost her way”, but something triggered a war of words late on Friday.
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‘Shame on everyone that protected Epstein’
The president had taken questions on Air Force One, with two reporters citing Taylor Green’s demand that the files be released.
Moments later, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was withdrawing his endorsement of the congresswoman.
He branded her a “ranting lunatic”, “wacky Marjorie”, and said all she ever does is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN.”
Her reply came very quickly, in a post claiming she had sent the president text messages about Jeffrey Epstein.
“Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein Files,” she posted.
Read more on Jeffrey Epstein:
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘wants Trump to commute sentence’
What Epstein’s right-hand woman said about Trump and Andrew
She accused him of “coming after” her to “scare all the other Republicans” before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.
“It’s astonishing how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level,” she added.
For years, they were joined at the hip – Trump the movement’s figurehead, Taylor Greene its megaphone – but it has now descended into open hostility.
Epstein, the story that won’t go away, has just cost Trump one of his most loyal allies, and rocked the internal dynamics of his political movement.
At least nine people have been killed and 32 injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The accidental blast occurred late on Friday in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, as forensic and police personnel were evaluating the explosive material, according to police director-general Nalin Prabhat.
Most of the dead were officers and forensic staff, police said, adding that several of the injured remained in a critical condition.
The massive explosion tore through the police station, setting the building and several vehicles on fire.
“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100-200m away from the police station,” a police source said.
A series of smaller successive blasts slowed rescue operations.
A police official lays flowers on a coffin at a ceremony for the victims. Pic: Reuters
The police station blast comes just days after a deadly car explosion in New Delhi on Monday, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort.
The car explosion occurred hours after police in Kashmir said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the region, arresting at least seven people, including two doctors from Indian cities.
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Police also seized a large quantity of bomb-making material in Faridabad, near New Delhi.
Indian security forces have conducted multiple raids across Kashmir during their investigation, questioning hundreds and detaining dozens.
Relatives protest following the blast. Pic: Reuters
Authorities said DNA testing identified the car’s driver as a Kashmiri doctor, and government forces demolished his family home in Pulwama district on Thursday night.
In the past, security forces have demolished the homes of individuals they allege were linked to militants opposing Indian rule in Kashmir as a form of punishment.
India and Pakistan both claim all of Kashmir, though each controls only part of the territory.
Militants in the Indian-administered region have been fighting against New Delhi since 1989, with India labeling it Pakistan-backed terrorism.
Pakistan denies the claim, saying that many Kashmiris view it as a legitimate struggle for independence.
World
Donald Trump withdraws support for Marjorie Taylor Greene after she calls for Epstein files to be released
Donald Trump has withdrawn support for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – which she claims is over her support for releasing files about Jeffrey Epstein.
In comments made on Truth Social, Mr Trump said he would support any challenger who wants to take Ms Greene’s seat in Georgia.
It comes after weeks of the MAGA ally breaking ranks from the president – and according to a post on X after his withdrawal, she believes it’s over a possible vote on releasing all of the Epstein files.
Read more: Marjorie Taylor Greene – the MAGA ally known for embracing conspiracies and insulting journalists
After the US government shutdown ended, a petition to vote on the full release of the files about disgraced pedophile financier Epstein received enough signatures – including Ms Greene’s – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.
While such a vote does not yet have a date, Mr Trump has called the files a “hoax” and accused the Democrats of using them “to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN”.
Earlier this week, thousands of documents from Epstein were released, which reference Mr Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, among others.
Read more: What do Epstein documents say about Trump, Andrew and Mandelson?
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The new Epstein files: The key takeaways
Trump attacks ‘Wacky’ Majorie
In his post on Truth Social overnight, Mr Trump said: “all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!
“It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement – which she wasn’t about to get!).”
The president went on to claim “she has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore”, before adding: “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.
“I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support.”
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Will new Epstein emails hurt Trump?
Greene: Trump’s fight to stop files ‘astonishing’
Around an hour later, Ms Greene responded on X to say “President Trump just attacked me and lied about me”, and shared text messages to him and a White House aide about releasing information on the deceased pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files,” she added on social media.
“It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”
Read more: Why this is dangerous terrain for Trump
Marjorie Taylor Greene was an ardent supporter of MAGA and became a Republican Congresswoman in 2021. File pic: AP
She then said “most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America… that’s what I voted for”.
“I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him,” she added.
“But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump… I remain the same today as I’ve always been and I will continue to pray this administration will be successful because the American people desperately deserve what they voted for.”
Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner’s encounter with Greene from earlier this year…
Earlier this week, Mr Trump accused the MAGA loyalist of “catering to the other side” after she criticised his focus on foreign policy, which she described as “America Last”.
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Trump rebukes MAGA ally over foreign policy
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking charges and was accused of running a “vast network” of underage girls for sex. He pleaded not guilty.
Following a conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, he was registered as a sex offender.
It comes after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published several emails, which they said “raises questions about Trump and Epstein’s relationship, Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s crimes”, and the president’s relationship to Epstein’s victims.
Mr Trump has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and called claims linking him to the financier a “hoax”.
Read more on Jeffrey Epstein:
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘wants Trump to commute sentence’
What Epstein’s right-hand woman said about Trump and Andrew
The White House also said the “selectively leaked emails” were an attempt to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
Republicans retaliated by releasing more than 20,000 pages from Epstein’s files and accusing Democrats of “cherry-picking” their documents.
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