A group of 11 asylum seekers from Manston were left at Victoria train station on Tuesday night with nowhere to stay, no winter coats, many of them in flip-flops, according to volunteers from homelessness charity Under One Sky, who provided them with emergency need. food and clothing supplies. “They were stressed, disturbed and completely disoriented,” said Danial Abbas, a volunteer with the charity. The group, from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, some of them wrapped in blankets for warmth, were confused about what to do, he said. “They were also very hungry.” About 50 asylum seekers from Kent were also deposited by a bus from Victoria bus station at around 11pm on Saturday, according to a witness. “They were still on the road at midnight, trying to figure out what to do, where to go. They had no money, they hadn’t even been told where they were,” said the witness, an Afghan asylum seeker, who asked not to be named. He has been staying at a nearby hostel for the past 14 months and watched them arrive. “I was shocked. I tried to help. I showed them where to get free wifi, where to sit and warm up at the station.” Hundreds of asylum seekers have been quickly turned away from the Manston camp over the past two days amid intense criticism of overcrowding conditions at the immigration centre, where this weekend around 4,000 people were being held in a space designed for 1,600 people. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the number of people in Manston had fallen significantly on Tuesday, with more expected to move on Wednesday. The 11 men left without accommodation on Tuesday told charity volunteers they had been flown from Kent to London earlier on Tuesday evening as part of a larger group of around 40 asylum seekers. Other members of their group had family members or friends they could contact and stay with them, but 11 were left at the station with nowhere to spend the night. One of the men, a 29-year-old economics student from Iraq, said he was held in Manston for 21 days after arriving in the UK by boat. “There were so many people there. They gave food, but only a little,” he said. He said he was told on Tuesday afternoon that he was being flown to London. “They told us we had to go to our families or friends. I have no family in the UK,” he said. When they got to London he told the driver he had nowhere to go but was asked to get off the bus. He had no money of his own and no money had been given to him by the Home Office. “I asked what to do at night, it’s cold. He said: you have to leave.” Volunteers from the charity, which distributes food to homeless people on the streets in London, took the asylum seekers to Primark and spent more than £450 buying them gloves, thermal jackets, shoes and socks. Volunteers called the Home Office, which said there had been an “operational error”. At 1am on Wednesday, eight hours after the station dropped them on the road, two taxis were sent to Victoria to pick up the 11 men and took them to Norwich, where they were put up in a hotel. A British Transport Police spokesman said staff responded to reports of a group of asylum seekers seeking help at Victoria station at 10.33pm on Tuesday. “Officers engaged and liaised with charity partners, railway staff and government colleagues to help them find accommodation for the night,” they said. Abbas, from Under One Sky, said the unloading of people at the station may not have been an isolated incident. “A British Transport Police officer in Victoria told me this has been happening since Saturday – coachloads of refugees are just being dumped here,” Abbas said. The witness who saw the bus carrying the asylum seekers crash at Victoria station on Saturday night said no Home Office staff were on hand to help. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. He said most of the asylum seekers appeared to be from Afghanistan and had been told they had spent the past 10 days in a Home Office camp near Dover. “They each had a blue plastic bag filled with their belongings and a paper tag around their wrists. They were cold and hungry. I went to the corner shop and bought them some cakes. I felt sorry for them – they were asking me where to go,” he said. Some had relatives in Birmingham and Manchester, he said, but did not have the money to travel there. Others were able to call friends in London and left the station area to find them. By about 1 am they were all gone. “They said they had been told there was no room for them in any hotel or hostel. I don’t know where they all went,” the witness said. Clare Moseley, of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the Home Office had a duty to house asylum seekers who could not support themselves. “They shouldn’t leave people on the street. We had heard of another case where someone was driven from Manston to Southampton where there was no hotel room for them. It’s absolutely chaotic and horrible.” On Wednesday, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said the government faced a “serious and escalating problem”, adding: “We will make sure we control our borders and we will always do it fairly and compassionately, because that is the right thing to do. “ But Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “People are not being supported with dignity, humanity and compassion.” The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
