The group of armed prisoners behind “violence and disorder” at an immigration center in west London during a power cut will be held to account, a minister has said. No one was injured during the overnight “disturbance” at Harmondsworth detention center near Heathrow Airport, according to Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick. The power problems started on Friday around 3pm and continued into Saturday afternoon. As can be seen, a group of arrested people came out of their rooms and went out into the courtyard armed with various weapons. None of those arrested left the premises during the incident and have since returned to their rooms.
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The Home Office said people were being moved to other centers while engineers fixed the power and repaired the damage. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick took to Twitter on Saturday night to condemn the “unacceptable levels of violence and disorder” allegedly seen during the riots and said those responsible “will be held accountable”. He wrote: “The public should be reassured that offenders and others awaiting removal from the UK are being held safely. “The perpetrators of this disturbance will be held accountable and, where appropriate, removed from the country as quickly as possible. “The Home Secretary and I have been kept informed of events throughout the night and today by our hard working teams. I visited the site tonight and I expect the center to be empty by the end of the day.” The Metropolitan Police and HM Prison Service were called to the detention center at 7.45pm on Friday and remained at the scene on Saturday. Officers have been providing support to staff dealing with the incident, the Met confirmed. As can be seen, a group of arrested people came out of their rooms and went out into the courtyard armed with various weapons. None of those arrested left the premises during the incident and later returned to their rooms. Sky News reported that the disturbance peaked around 2am but was still ongoing on Saturday afternoon, with the National Tactical Response Unit in attendance. The London Fire Brigade also responded. Earlier on Saturday, the Home Office said in a statement: “There has been a power outage at the migrant removal center in Harmondsworth and work is currently underway to resolve this issue. “We know there is a disturbance at the center and the relevant authorities have been alerted and are on the scene. “The welfare and safety of staff and people detained at Harmondsworth is our top priority.” Around 100 people were due to be moved from the Harmondsworth center to make way for new arrivals from the overcrowded center in Manston, the Guardian reports, but “protest” prevented this. Dangerous overcrowding problems at Manston, a temporary immigration processing facility in Kent, emerged this week after 4,000 asylum seekers were placed in a facility designed for 1,600. In an effort to reduce the crowd, hundreds of asylum seekers have been quickly moved out of Manston camp over the past two days. The number has dropped to 2,600, with 1,200 people removed from the site in the past four days, No 10 said on Friday. Around 40 migrants were flown to London to stay with friends or family on Tuesday, but around 11 of them had nowhere to go on arrival – forcing them to flag down staff at Victoria train station for help. The incident comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted the migration crisis is a “serious and escalating problem” and admitted that “not enough” asylum claims are being processed. He was challenged on the issue by Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Mr Starmer said the blame for a “broken” asylum system lay with the Tories and that just 4% of asylum claims made by people who crossed the Channel in small boats last year had been processed. He said: “They are only making half the asylum decisions they used to make. That’s why the system is broken.” Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under fire for her response to the growing number of people crossing the Channel in small boats after she branded it an “invasion” of southern England. Four parliamentary committee chairs have jointly written to Ms Braverman asking how the Home Office will reduce backlogs in asylum cases. The letter is signed by the chairs of the Home Affairs Committee, the Justice Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Women and Equality Committee and asks for a response by November 16.
