The British government is facing a barrage of criticism over the plight of migrants housed in the overcrowded asylum processing center in the town of Manston, Kent County. The government has admitted this Thursday that this temporary residence is not operating legally, while the immigration minister assured that some residents have initiated legal action.
The center is supposed to have a maximum capacity of 1,600 people, who can only stay there for 24 hours while initial checks are carried out. However, up to 4,000 have been in the center, some in appalling conditions, for weeks.
Speaking to Sky News, Robert Jenrick, the Home Secretary responsible for immigration, said the government had received "initial contact for a judicial review" about the events in Manston, but could not elaborate for legal reasons. Such an action "is not unusual" as it concerned a "highly litigious area". The minister added that he expected the site to become legally compliant again "very quickly".
Jenrick said Wednesday that the number of people detained at the center had dropped "very substantially" since the weekend.
Two British newspapers reported on Wednesday that a group of about 40 migrants from Manston were dropped off at a bus station in central London on Tuesday and, while some 30 had relatives or friends they could contact to stay, 11 were left without accommodation or warm clothing - some of them even wore sandals - and had to be helped by charitable organizations.
A Reuters photographer outside the Manston processing center said on Wednesday night that three Afghan men who said they were taken to London on Tuesday but had nowhere to stay returned to the center in Kent because they had no other shelter.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been accused of not listening to legal advice about prolonged detention at the centre, a claim she has denied. An independent inspector said an Afghan family told him last week that they had been there for 32 days.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, accused the United Kingdom on Thursday of turning Albanian citizens into scapegoats for the "failures" of British immigration policies.
In a statement last night to the BBC, Rama considered that the recent statements by the British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, that the United Kingdom was being invaded, as a result of the arrival of migrants in boats crossing the English Channel Even things English feed xenophobia.
Braverman used the word "invasion" to describe the arrival of migrants and said that there was an "increase in the number of arrivals of Albanians", who were particularly young and single men who were part of organized criminal gangs or were involved in criminal activities such as the drugs. "This kind of language is not a policy," the Albanian prime minister said.
Rama added that using the word "invasion" is "crazy" and that it had been "impossible not to react." "This is not about one person. It is about the climate that has been created, and it is about finding scapegoats and blaming others. It is not about Albanians, foreigners or gangsters, but about failed policies on borders and crime," he added. the politician.
According to government data, 12,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel so far this year, compared to 50 in 2020. Of this year's total, 10,000 have been men, representing the 1% of the adult male population of Albania, according to the media.
The controversy over immigration policy came to light after a man attacked an immigrant reception center in Dover on Sunday with several firebombs that had pyrotechnic elements attached. The media highlighted that this center is also saturated with migrants.
The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, defended Braverman yesterday, when the Labor opposition called for his dismissal for allegedly ignoring the law in his management of an immigrant center.
The leader of the Labor Party, Keir Starmer, questioned Sunak's alleged commitment "to integrity" in recovering the controversial MP, who he said had knowingly ignored advisers who recommended that he seek alternative accommodation for hundreds of immigrants detained by above legal limits in central Kent.
The prime minister said his minister is focused on "reducing crime and protecting borders."
