Latest news with #AndyBaxter
The Guardian
05-05-2025
- The Guardian
UK migrant centre sees sixfold rise in a year of staff sacked over failed drug tests
A total of 29 staff have been sacked after positive drug tests at the Manston migrant processing centre – a sixfold increase in the space of a year, the Guardian has learned. Thousands of asylum seekers who arrive in the UK after crossing the Channel on dinghies are processed at the site near Ramsgate in Kent by Home Office officials and contractors. Many of the new arrivals are vulnerable and arrive in the UK traumatised. New Home Office freedom of information data obtained by the Guardian reveals that, in 2024, 29 staff were sacked after testing positive for drugs including cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and non-prescription Tramadol compared with figures from 2023, which the Home Office said involved five or fewer drugs sackings. According to the FoI data, more than 2,000 Home Office staff, contractors and sub-contractors are on the site in the space of a year, but it is not known how many of that number are detention custody officers who are directly in charge of the new arrivals. There are likely to be a few hundred staff on site during any given shift. Workers on the Manston site who test positive for illegal drugs are suspended while a disciplinary investigation is held. Those who have tested positive for drugs have an opportunity to lodge an appeal and to obtain independent analysis of the sample taken for the drug test. Home Office sources said random and intelligence-led drug testing was conducted to protect the vulnerable people being processed on the site and that positive tests lead to dismissal and withdrawal of accreditation as detention custody officers. Andy Baxter, the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, the trade union that represents staff at Manston, said: 'The POA can never condone drug-taking in the workplace. However, we would urge the employer to offer suitable occupational support to people found to be using drugs.' This is not the first time Manston, a short-term detention facility, has been hit by a drugs controversy. In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that some guards were removed from Manston after complaints about drugs. Asylum seekers complained that some staff tried to sell them drugs while staff complained some of their colleagues were using drugs while on duty. At the time, the Home Office said: 'The individuals involved in this incident were swiftly removed from the site and we will continue to take robust action against those whose behaviour falls beneath those high standards.' However, according to the new FoI data nobody working at Manston was sacked for drug use in 2022. Manston has been the subject of many controversies including severe overcrowding in the second half of 2022 when the site, designed to hold a maximum of 1,600 asylum seekers, accommodated more than 4,000 in filthy conditions. There were mass outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies and one man died after becoming infected with diphtheria. An independent inquiry into events at Manston during that period has started its work. Emma Ginn, the director of the charity Medical Justice, which works to support people in immigration detention, said: 'Medical Justice is alarmed by the apparent high rate of illicit drug use by staff responsible for the safety and wellbeing of people who, having been detained after a perilous journey to the UK, are in a vulnerable situation and need sensitive care.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We have a zero-tolerance approach to illegal drug use found on testing. By introducing more robust procedures and increasing testing, we are demonstrating our commitment to ensuring the care of those transiting through Manston is maintained.' In a separate development, last month Home Office sources confirmed that a man had attempted to take his life on the site. Such attempts are unusual because new arrivals generally move through the site in a matter of hours. A Home Office spokesperson said in connection with this incident: 'Our duty of care towards people detained at Manston and across our entire immigration estate is of the utmost importance.'
Arab News
07-04-2025
- Health
- Arab News
Ex-detainees at UK asylum center bring claim against govt
LONDON: At least 250 asylum-seekers detained at a UK facility are suing the government for unlawful detention after it emerged that the site was dangerously overcrowded and faced infectious disease outbreaks. Manston asylum center in Kent, used by the Home Office to process people who had crossed the English Channel on small boats, was once described by a union official as a 'humanitarian crisis on British soil,' The Guardian reported on Monday. David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said he was 'rendered speechless' after seeing conditions at Manston. Andy Baxter, a senior official at the Prison Officers' Association, also condemned conditions at the site after being warned by union members working there. He described Manston as closely resembling a refugee camp in an unstable country after visiting the site, which he said was 'in crisis.' Marquees that were intended to be used for hours upon the arrival of asylum-seekers had been used for more than a month, despite the Home Office planning to relocate arrivals to more permanent accommodation. People slept on the ground using pieces of cardboard, he added. Manston also faced diphtheria and scabies outbreaks, with one man dying after contracting the former, a rarity in the UK due to vaccination. Kent Police also investigated claims that guards at the facility had assaulted asylum-seekers. One of the claimants against the government, a 19-year-old Sudanese national, was detained at the site for 33 days, and his past experience of being tortured and trafficked was never recorded by officials at Manston. While at the facility, he was 'often hungry' and was allowed one shower during the 33-day period. He was also denied a change of clothes, and was told by officials to 'go back to your country.' A 17-year-old Kurd from Iraq, detained for 12 days, had his birth date recorded as five years older than his real age, despite telling officials he was a child. A Syrian woman who arrived in the UK with her husband and five children outlined the troubling details of her ordeal in the claim. Her husband was removed to a separate immigration center after complaining about conditions at Manston, yet she was not informed about his whereabouts and feared he had been deported. The woman and her children spent 11 days in a freezing, dirty tent, and were only permitted to leave to go to the toilet. Her children contracted a stomach bug that was circulating at the site, and she had nowhere to wash their vomit-stained clothes. She later discovered that she was pregnant after suffering morning sickness, and was unable to access medical care in Manston. After being released and seeking treatment, she discovered that she had suffered a miscarriage. She has now reunited with her husband together with their children, but said the experience at Manston continues to affect the family. Emily Soothill of law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, who is representing some of the claimants, said: 'We consider that our clients were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that their human rights were breached. 'People seeking asylum are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness; they have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be detained in this way.'
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
People held at UK migrant centre sue government for human rights breach
At least 250 people who were detained at Manston asylum centre during a period when it was dangerously overcrowded and grappling with outbreaks of infectious diseases are suing the government for unlawful detention and other breaches of their rights. They include a woman who had a miscarriage, a child whose age was recorded as five years older than he was, classifying him as an adult, and a teenager who was a victim of torture and trafficking. The claims arise from a time when the Home Office's site in Kent for processing people who had crossed the Channel on small boats was described by a senior union official as 'a humanitarian crisis on British soil'. The former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal, said the poorly managed and insanitary conditions there were so bad he was rendered speechless. Andy Baxter, the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, raised the alarm about conditions on the site in response to concerns from members of his union who worked there. After visiting, he described an unprecedented situation which more closely resembled a refugee camp in an unstable country than a Home Office temporary staging post for new arrivals to the UK in a tranquil corner of Kent. At the time that Baxter said Manston was in crisis, marquees that were supposed to be used for a matter of hours before asylum seekers were moved to more permanent accommodation were used for more than a month in some cases. People slept on the dirty ground on pieces of sodden cardboard. There were outbreaks of diphtheria, a disease rarely seen in the UK thanks to vaccination, and scabies. One man died after contracting diphtheria while claims of guards assaulting asylum seekers were investigated by Kent police. But it was only in the months after this bleak period – between June and November 2022 – that the full details of what happened there began to emerge. Those bringing claims against the government include a 19-year-old from Sudan who was a victim of torture and trafficking, although his vulnerabilities were not recorded while he was detained at Manston for 33 days. He said he was often hungry and was only allowed one shower the whole time he was there. He was not given any change of clothes. He said that some of the officials he encountered at Manston told him to 'go back to your country'. Another claimant, a 17-year-old Kurdish boy from Iraq was given a birth date five years older than his actual age, despite insisting he was a child. He was detained for 12 days. A Syrian woman had a particularly difficult time. She arrived in the UK with her husband and their five young children. But when her husband complained to guards about the conditions at Manston he was removed from the site and placed in an immigration detention centre. She did not know where he had been taken and feared he had been deported. She and the children spent 11 days in a freezing, filthy tent, only allowed to leave it to go to the toilet. Her children contracted a sickness bug that was circulating at Manston but she had nowhere to wash their vomit-stained clothes as there was a shortage of running water so she tried to wash the clothes using bottled water. She herself vomited every morning and later discovered she was pregnant. She was unable to access medical care while in Manston and when she was released and could seek treatment it was discovered that the baby had died inside her. After she and her children were released from Manston, she was finally able to reunite with her husband but says that the impact of being detained in Manston continues to affect them all. Emily Soothill of Deighton Pierce Glynn, who is representing some of those bringing legal action relating to their time at Manston, said: 'We consider that our clients were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that their human rights were breached. People seeking asylum are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness; they have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be detained in this way.' Jed Pennington of Wilsons solicitors, representing others legally challenging their time in Manston, said: 'The humanitarian crisis that unfolded at Manston in the autumn of 2022 is not what you would expect to see in a country with well-developed systems for accommodating refugees. Our clients want the truth about how it happened, who let it happen and how to prevent this from happening again.'
