Each immigrant is searched for weapons and asked if there is anything they want to tell the officials. They are not asked at that stage if they are seeking asylum as the Western Jet Foil is just a stopover to ensure their safety before they are processed. Immigrants are photographed with a Polaroid camera, their wristband details visible, and the photo is attached to their booking form. Migrants are given dry clothes, food and hot drinks and taken 20 miles to the reception center in Manston.
Edited in Manston
Once they arrive in Manston, the process of checking the migrants’ names, ages and place of origin is repeated and they are taken to biometric recording stations where their fingerprints and photographs are taken. Anyone whose details match the criminal record databases are arrested and taken to an immigration center to await deportation, where many will seek legal advice and claim that they have been trafficked or that their lives are in danger if they return . The process of determining whether migrants have applied for asylum in other countries is more difficult as a result of the withdrawal of EU cooperation on the European Asylum Fingerprint Database (Eurodac) used to track asylum applications in EU countries.
