Home Office U-turns on immigration centre inquiry

The Home Office has made a U-turn on a decision to launch a statutory inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, The Independent can reveal.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Government ministers have decided that they will back a quicker non-statutory investigation instead, reversing the decision of former home secretary James Cleverly in March.

It comes after more than 10,000 people passed through the Kent detention centre between October and December 2022. The former military base was emptied at the end of November 2022 after it was revealed there was severe overcrowding at the site, with migrants reportedly sleeping on cardboard and one man dying of diphtheria.

Sixteen claimants who were held at the site have brought legal action against the home secretary, arguing that there should be a statutory inquiry into the “deplorable conditions and mistreatment suffered by thousands of detainees”.