EXCLUSIVE: Infamous Manston migrant site to be expanded to add 1,000 places in effort to slash £3bn asylum bill
- Manston migrant centre, Kent, will be expanded to house an extra 1,000 people
- It houses migrants in marquees for up to 48 hours before they are sent to hotels
One of Britain’s most infamous migrant centres is to be expanded so that it can house more than 1,000 extra people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The Manston migrant centre in Kent, where Channel boat arrivals are brought and ‘processed’ before being sent to hotels across the country, is to be enlarged so that it can house asylum seekers for longer.
Sources have told the MoS that the Home Office is planning to turn existing flats at the former air base into accommodation for migrants.
The move comes as the Government desperately tries to find alternative accommodation for the more than 51,000 boat migrants currently running up a daily hotel bill of £6 million picked up by the taxpayer. The Home Office last year spent £3.6 billion on asylum support costs.
Yesterday, as police vehicles patrolled outside Manston, the MoS saw through its perimeter fences builders working on the site.
The Manston migrant centre in Kent (pictured), where Channel boat arrivals are brought and ‘processed’ before being sent to hotels across the country, is to be enlarged so that it can house asylum seekers for longer
It is understood that staff at the site were told that the fire service training centre built on the site when the air base closed will be demolished and pre-fab buildings erected for use as flats for migrants.
One source, who did not want to be named, said that construction has been delayed as builders removed asbestos found in existing buildings.
At present the centre accommodates migrants in marquees for up to 48 hours before they are sent to hotels.
But it is believed that once the new accommodation is ready, migrants may be kept at Manston for longer before being moved to other centres, such as offshore barges and other former air bases. Ministers hope that migrants could be accommodated there for months.
Manston was at the centre of a national scandal last November when violence between staff and detainees broke out and diseases such as diphtheria spread as the 1,600-capacity site overflowed with 4,000 migrants, some of whom had been housed there for months.
Hundreds of these asylum seekers are now suing the Home Office for unlawful detention and inhumane treatment.
At present the centre accommodates migrants in marquees for up to 48 hours before they are sent to hotels
Ministers fear a massive influx of migrants in Channel boat crossings in the coming weeks.
In the past seven days, 1,294 migrants arrived in 28 boats, according to Home Office data.
The total for this month up to Friday was 3,179, compared to 3,139 for June 2022. Experts are predicting a huge surge during July and August, and there are fears that Manston could be overwhelmed.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration Services Union (ISU) whose members work at Manston, said: ‘The ISU is told by Border Force that there are adequate plans in place to ensure that this summer’s predicted arrival rate can be processed and moved to onward accommodation safely.
‘But they have declined to share what those plans might be. Staff fear a return to the chaotic and dangerous scenes from last year.’
Last night, the Home Office said that the new facilities will contain a canteen area, recreational rooms, multi-faith prayer room and phones.
A spokesman said: ‘Accommodation offered to asylum seekers, on a no choice basis, meets our legal and contractual requirements.’
