Hungry and confused asylum seekers from war-torn East Africa were found sleeping rough in central London after the Home Office removed dozens of people from the Manston immigration processing center in Kent without offering alternative accommodation.
At least 18 asylum seekers are believed to have been sleeping on the streets this week after at least two buses left them at Victoria station, forcing three charities and two councils to provide emergency help.
Seven of the “highly vulnerable people” from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt and Kuwait with no family or friends in the UK spent two nights outdoors. They are now being helped by the charity Crisis, whose chief executive Matt Downey accused the Home Office of causing “sheer confusion”.
They were among the asylum seekers – including some from Afghanistan and Syria – transported from Kent to London after Home Secretary Suella Braverman ordered people to be moved following outrage at conditions including cold, overcrowding and disease.
On Friday, amid continued pressure on Braverman to get a handle on the Manston crisis, Home Secretary Chris Philp was accused of “callous complacency” by the Lib Dems after he said: “If people choose to enter a country illegally, and unnecessarily … a bit it’s cheeky to then start complaining about the conditions.”
A Downing Street spokesman distanced the prime minister from Philp’s remark, saying: “These people deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.”
Immigration Minister Robert Jerrick was jeered by some residents when he visited Dover on Friday. Almost 40,000 people have arrived in the UK this year after crossing the Channel in small boats.
A bus carrying asylum seekers leaves the Home Affairs processing center in Manston on November 2. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
On Thursday, a separate group of 11 people wearing wristbands and carrying documents from Manston were found on the streets of Westminster. They are believed to have been left on Tuesday.
Four did not want to engage with the council or its rough sleeper teams and left. Seven were accommodated in hotels. On Friday, the council was working to send the group to Moon House in Croydon, a Home Office immigration processing center, to be assessed by officers, where, according to Downey, some were told to contact the Crisis office in Croydon for accommodation.
“We’re trying to help people and get them housing and support and we’re trying to understand why on earth the Home Office is referring people to us when they’re responsible for these people,” he said.
Braverman was criticized for her rhetoric when discussing the ongoing crisis, but the prime minister defended her choice of words. In an interview with the Times, Rishi Sunak backed his home secretary when she said Britain was facing an “invasion” of illegal immigrants.
Others who were left in Westminster by bus this week without accommodation, some wearing flip flops, were later sent to Norwich after volunteers from the Under One Sky charity helped them. One said: “I thought there would be a hotel for us. [The coach driver] said, “Go where you will, it is not my responsibility.”
Norwich City Council said the Home Office had given no warning that they were coming early on Thursday morning. “We don’t know who they are and we don’t know where they’ve gone in the city,” said Stephen Evans, the council’s chief executive.
Mick Clarke, chief executive of Passage, a charity which works with Westminster Council, said he was “shocked” to find people from Manston sleeping rough and called for an urgent government review “into how this happened as this terrible situation cannot be repeated.” They found hotels for seven people.
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Westminster council leader Adam Hugh accused the Home Office of “panicking” on Friday.
“The chaos engulfing the arrivals center in Manston is now having an impact on councils across the country,” he said. “It is not acceptable that people seeking asylum in the UK should be dumped at a bus station and left to fend for themselves. We need a more humane and frankly better organized response.
People forced to sleep rough after being removed from Manston described “appalling” conditions at the immigration centre, Downey said.
“They were happy to be on a bus, warm,” he said. “They thought they would be provided with housing or accommodation in London. The people we saw had no family or friends in the UK.
After two nights on the street, five were accommodated in hotels and two in specialized accommodation with hosts. “People don’t know what they’re entitled to and we don’t know what the Home Office plans to do for them,” Downey said.
The Home Office said: “The welfare of the people in our care is of the utmost importance and asylum seekers are only released from Manston when we have assurances that they have a place to stay. Any other suggestion is wrong.
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