The Home Secretary dodged questions from the press as she met Dover coastguard and traveled to the Manston facility in a Chinook. At one point in recent days, up to 4,000 people have been held at the site for weeks – even though it is only intended to hold 1,600 for no more than 24 hours. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:58 Braverman visits Manston The government claims more than 1,000 migrants have been moved from Manston this week, meaning 2,700 people remain in the facility. And Downing Street officials stressed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was receiving twice-daily updates on the situation. A spokeswoman for No 10 said the Home Secretary was being briefed on operations on the ground which “apparently involved operations in the English Channel”, so she “traveled on a military aircraft to see the area of operations at sea”. A Home Office spokesman reiterated the point, saying he traveled on the aircraft with Channel Smuggler Threat Commander Dan O’Mahony “to get a first-hand picture of operations in the English Channel”. Ms Braverman spent about two hours in Manston and left using a side gate – away from reporters gathered at the main entrance. While North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale was also seen leaving the processing centre, Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said it was a “great shame” the Home Secretary did not get the chance to meet other Kent politicians. “The small boat crisis is not just at immigration processing facilities, it is at our beaches, schools, services and homes in Kent,” he added. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt later said Ms Braverman was ready to “face the music”, although she dodged questions from the media throughout yesterday. The Home Office said “immediate” steps were being taken to improve conditions at Manston – improving medical facilities, providing extra bedding as well as providing better catering. Ms Braverman added: “This is a complex and difficult situation which we need to tackle on all fronts and consider innovative solutions. “To break the business model of people smugglers, we need to ensure that the illegal migration route across the Channel is eventually made unsustainable.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 1:47 Manston migrant stranded “Disoriented, desperate and completely lost” An asylum seeker who says he was among a group of migrants stranded in central London on Tuesday night said they were not told where they were going by officials. The man – who gave his name as Hasibullah from Afghanistan – said he was among a group of 45 migrants who were removed from Manston and taken to Victoria bus station. He told Sky News: “They tell us ‘take a bus.’ We know we are going to London but we don’t know where. “When we get to London, the driver says ‘get out’. Then we don’t know where we’re going.” Hasibullah said the officials had not told them where their accommodation was. His team later received support from volunteers and were eventually taken to a hotel in Norwich. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:41 Migrants “threaten to harm themselves” One of those volunteers, Danial Abass, told Sky News he was on a routine walk to feed the homeless on Tuesday when he was approached by people who were “disoriented, desperate and completely lost” near Victoria bus station. He said: “It was really a very disturbing and painful sight to see.” Mr Abass added that many of the men were wearing flip-flops, gray tracksuits, ID tags around their arms and “large blue industrial bin bags with no jackets or socks”. He took one of the men to Primark in Oxford Street and bought him jackets, shoes, clothes, hats and dinner from McDonald’s. A Home Office spokesman said: “The welfare of those in our care is of the utmost importance and asylum seekers are only released from Manston when we have assurances that they have accommodation to go to. “We worked at a pace to find accommodation for the individuals as soon as we were informed, and they are now in accommodation and being supported.”
