‘Please help us’
One desperate girl’s plaintive handwritten plea... in a bottle thrown over fence at troubled holding camp
MIGRANTS being held in the Manston processing centre begged for help yesterday.
A young girl ran past security staff to throw a bottle containing a letter over the perimeter fence of the Kent asylum holding centre to the Press gathered outside.
The letter claimed there were pregnant women and sick detainees inside, and that a disabled child was not being cared for.
Written in broken English, it said: ‘We are in a difficult life now... we fill [sic] like we’re in prison.
‘Some of us very sick... there’s some women’s that are pregnant they don’t do anything for them. We really need your help. Please help us.
‘It’s not easy for someone who has children. There’s a lot of children they shouldn’t be here. They should be in a school not prison.’
The letter went on: ‘We wanna talk to you but they don’t even let us go outside.’
Four parliamentary committee chairmen last night wrote to Home Secretary Suella Braverman expressing their ‘deep concerns’ over the ‘ dire’ conditions at migrant processing centre.
It came as council leaders in Kent also contacted the Home Secretary complaining that the influx of asylum seekers housed locally has put enormous strain on schools, social housing and healthcare.
In a letter to Suella Braverman, they wrote: ‘Put simply, Kent is at breaking point.
‘Kent and Medway makes up just 3 per cent of our country’s geographic space, and yet we are a victim of our geographic position.
‘It is time to utilise the remaining 97 per cent of the country to relieve the burden on Kent.’
It comes as around 1,000 migrants left the Manston facility in the last two days, destined for hotel accommodation while their asylum claims are considered. Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said politicians expected it to return to its 1,600-person capacity by the weekend, down from 4,100 in recent days.
Council leaders are concerned at reports of increasing tension at the site, with people sleeping on rollmats and in cramped conditions. Safety concerns have been voiced about adult men being housed with young families.
Kent and Medway council leaders have also revealed secondary schools in Canterbury and Ashford
‘We are in a difficult life now... some of us very sick’
‘currently have no year seven and year nine places for local children due to the unexpected and therefore unplanned-for arrivals of refugee children disproportionately placed by the Home Office in these two local authority areas’.
Some children are having to travel to other towns to access their education, ‘placing further financial burden on Kent County Council who have to fund their home to school transport as a result’, the letter added.
Last night it emerged Home Office staff are Skyping migrants from home as they assess asylum applications.
Agency staff are helping carry out initial asylum checks remotely because Manston is so overcrowded. Hundreds of agency workers have been drafted in by the Home Office to help with screening checks.
Minister for Immigration Robert Jenrick last night confirmed the Home Office now faces a judicial review over conditions at Manston. Legal action has begun after reports of severe overcrowding.