Immigration file returns to the fore in UK with Manston Center scandal

The immigration file dominated the UK parliament session held on Wednesday to hold Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accountable for the most important developments. 

The session was opened by opposition Labor Party leader KeirStarmer asking a sarcastic question to Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about what Home Secretary SuellaBraverman had said two days before that “Britain's asylum system is broken.”Starmer wondered “who broke it”, amid laughter from members of parliament from his party.

Starmer also continued his criticism of Braverman because, so far, only 4% of the asylum claims of everyone who arrived on small boats on British shores last year have been processed. He quipped that Braverman's chances of reaching the Tory leadership in a year from now are much higher than the chances of her completing the backlog of applications a year ago.

While Sunak indirectly admitted some shortcomings, saying that the government was working to “fix this delay in processing asylum applications,” he noted that “national security is an important issue” and that this “conservative government will keep the country safe.”

British and international media circulated the news of the transfer of hundreds of migrants on Tuesday evening from the Manston Center in Kent, southeast England, where more than 4,000 people are being held in the site designed to accommodate a maximum of 1,600 people for a period of no more than 24 hours.

Braverman, the home secretary of immigrant background, was charged last week with security breaches and her refusal to transfer asylum seekers from the overcrowded center. Some of the refugees were forced to sleep on the ground amid the outbreak of several infectious diseases such as diphtheria and scabies.

Although Braverman denied all the accusations against her during the impeachment hearing that took place two days ago in the House of Commons, Sky News, quoting a government source, confirmed that she ignored legal advice on the need to transfer asylum seekers to hotels or alternative detention centers.

No exact details are available yet on the number of migrants who were transported on buses yesterday,but the Home Office confirmed that a new transfer will take place Thursday to relieve pressure on the Manston Center, without disclosing the destination of hundreds of them and whether hotels are their new places of residence or alternative detention centers.

About 40,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boats this year. This number is expected to double this month, perhaps before the weather conditions worsen in December and January, according to BBC.

This prompted the British Red Cross to express its concern about the policy of dealing with asylum seekers. It said in a statement that “the serious problems at the Manston Center point to the broader issues facing the asylum system in the Kingdom.”

Red Cross spokesperson Alex Fraser also called on those concerned to take immediate action “to meet the basic needs of the hundreds of men, women, and children who have arrived on British shores after an arduous and painful journey.”

“Our country has an honorable history of helping people fleeing war and persecution. Regardless of how these migrants arrive, they all deserve compassionate and humane treatment,” he added.

Braverman had described immigrants earlier this week as “invaders”, which sparked a new wave of criticism and calls for her resignation.

The Guardian newspaper, in its Wednesday issue, published a report on “violations” by some immigration officials in the Home Office against child asylum seekers. The newspaper leaked complaints of Kurdish children who were asked to falsify their birthdays and falsely claim that they are adults over the age of eighteen.

The Home Office denied the incriminating information in the Guardian report. It pointed out that the newspaper “failed to provide us with concrete evidence in this regard.” But Humans for Rights director Maddie Harris confirmed that some immigration officials have pressured children to lie about their dates of birth so that the department can later deport them to Rwanda under its controversial plan.

The Defense Department's Manston Center was once a firefighting training center. The Home Office redesigned it as a detention center and opened it at the beginning of this year.

The problem of overcrowding in the center worsened last Sunday after the authorities transferred a large number of additional immigrants from a detention center in Dover, southeast England after it was attacked with petrol bombs by a white man who killed himself after carrying out the attack.

Braverman said at an impeachment hearing two days ago that the police were investigating the incident and would not treat the attack as a terrorist attack. But the body that eventually took part in the investigation was the Counter-Terrorism Police, who declared that “the attack is a despicable crime and hate is the motive behind it.”

The police also revealed the identity of the 66-year-old assailant, whose social media posts express extreme racism towards Muslims, non-English speaking strangers, refugees, and his affiliation with the extreme right, according to the police statement.