Diphtheria cases surge among asylum seekers

AROUND 50 cases of diphtheria have been identified among asylum seekers, the Government is expected to announce today.

Fears have been voiced that the deadly disease could have been spread as migrants were dispersed to hotels around the country.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said yesterday: “My understanding is, those cases were people who had that disease before they came to the United Kingdom.”

A PCR test on a man who died after being held at the Manston processing centre in Kent indicated that “diphtheria may be the cause”.

Mr Harper claimed the risk to the wider public was “extremely low”. Jim

Mcmanus, of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said a “lack of information, co-ordination and engagement from the Home Office” may have made things “far worse”.

He added that the situation has “put both asylum seekers and potentially hotel workers at avoidable and preventable risk.”

Lib Dem health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said Home Secretary Suella Braverman should resign. She SLAMMED said: “The UK is better than this. The Government should be ashamed of their callous complacency over the health and well-being of asylum seekers.” As of November 10, the UK Health Security Agency had identified 39 cases in asylum seekers in England in 2022. Labour’s Yvette Cooper said Ms Braverman must “confirm whether public health teams have been informed” of cases.