Arrivals have ‘a bit of cheek’ to moan, says minister

MIGRANTS who enter Britain illegally are wrong to complain about conditions in processing centres, a Home Office minister suggested yesterday.

Chris Philp said it was a ‘bit of a cheek’ for arrivals to claim they were being mistreated when they could have stayed in other safe countries such as France.

He also insisted the Government was ‘pretty generous’ in spending billions of pounds a year on accommodation for asylum seekers. His comments came as Downing Street revealed that 1,200 of those housed at the overcrowded Manston processing centre have left this week, leaving 2,600 on a site fit for 1,000.

The centre near Ramsgate in Kent has become overcrowded because so many migrants have arrived in dinghies across the Channel this year, leading to outbreaks of disease and children being forced to sleep on the floor. A young girl threw a bottle containing a letter over the perimeter fence this week saying there were pregnant and sick detainees inside and they feel ‘like we’re in prison’.

Challenged about the conditions on Times Radio today, policing minister Mr Philp said: ‘It is very, very difficult to accommodate 40,000 people who turn up illegally in a very short space of time. The Home Office is doing its best to try to accommodate them.

‘But if people choose to enter a country illegally and unnecessarily, it is a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions when you’ve illegally entered a country without necessity.’

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: ‘Chris Philp’s comments reveal a shocking and callous complacency over the disaster unfolding at Manston. He should start to show some leadership.’