Connect with us

Published

on

A minister has admitted that the Manston asylum processing centre is not operating legally, telling Sky News the government wants to “get a grip” on the situation.

Asked whether he was happy that asylum seekers were being detained illegally, climate minister Graham Stuart 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.”

Although Manston is meant to hold 1,600 people, estimates suggested 4,000 were being housed at the facility earlier this week.

Migrants are meant to stay there for a maximum of 24 hours while they’re processed before being sent to hotels or homes while their asylum claims are processed, but some have been kept there for as long as a month.

The Home Office is facing legal action over conditions at the former RAF airfield in Kent – as reports suggest asylum seekers were removed from the site and “abandoned” at London Victoria station.

Mr Stuart’s admission comes after immigration minister Robert Jenrick implied the facility was not operating legally, telling Sky News that he expects it will “be returned to a well-functioning and legally compliant site very rapidly”.

Mr Stuart sought to blame an “unacceptable surge” in small boat crossings for the problem, adding that the “system is struggling to cope”.

More from Politics

“It is not where we want it to be right now and we are simply looking to balance that out, thousands more hotel rooms have been sorted out but it’s unacceptable to the British people and we need to do more to tackle the traffickers in what is an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration,” he added.

But he conceded “unfortunate language” had been used over the migrant crisis, after the government was told to stop blaming Albanians for the migrant crisis by the country’s prime minister.

Mr Stuart said: “I’m grateful for the work we’re doing with the Albanians, they have been sending senior police officers over so as to speed up processing, we’ve got an expedited system to return Albanians if it turns out they are not legitimate asylum seekers.

“So we are trying to work in co-operation, but clearly there’s pressure. You can see it from councillors, you can see it from members of parliaments, you can hear it from people and journalists around the country.

“It can lead to language which is sometimes unfortunate and it is worth putting on record our gratitude to the Albanian government for their co-operation in working to sort this out.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has singled Albanians out several times over the past week as the numbers coming from the southern European country in small boats across the Channel has soared – and therefore the amount at Manston.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has also said Albanians are “abusing” the Modern Slavery Act to delay deportation attempts.

But the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has had enough, and tweeted on Wednesday that the British government needs to stop using Albanian immigrants to “excuse policy failures”.

Ms Braverman is under mounting pressure to get a handle on the migrant crisis.

Council chiefs in Kent have warned the county is at “breaking point” as a result of the situation, with the potential for disorder at Manston and the risk of far-right violence.

Continue Reading

World

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Published

on

By

Nine of Gazan doctor's 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.

Warning: This article contains details of child deaths

Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.

In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.

The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.

Rescuers removing the children's bodies from the rubble. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Rescuers placing the children's bodies in a van. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack

Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.

Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.

Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar's husband who is also a doctor, being taken into hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.

Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.

Rescuers unload the children's bodies. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

‘No political or military connections’

Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.

“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies

He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”

Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

Read more:
Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says ‘I don’t want to lose her’
Dad wrongly pronounced dead in Israeli bombing killed in airstrike

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Continue Reading

World

UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

Published

on

By

UN's Antonio Guterres condemns 'teaspoon' of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.

He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.

A woman walks amidst rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’

Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.

The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.

Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.

More on Gaza

Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

Palestinians carry a body at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, northern Gaza .
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza

The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.

The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip May 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Image:
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Read more on Sky News:
Shooting suspect ‘fired repeatedly’
Huge fire declared major incident
Has there been a rise in NHS appointments?

The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Continue Reading

World

’12 people’ injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station – as woman arrested

Published

on

By

'12 people' injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station - as woman arrested

A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.

An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.

They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.

Police at the scene of a stabbing at Hamburg Central Station. Pic: AP
Image:
Police at the scene. Pic: AP

Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive.

The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.

The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.

More on Germany

A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.

Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump threatens EU with 50% tariff
Mum of emaciated Gazan baby: ‘I don’t want to lose her’

Follow the World
Follow the World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.

Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.

Continue Reading

Trending