More migrants make Channel crossing as inspectors warn they are being held in ‘very poor’ conditions

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More migrants have crossed the Channel today after inspectors warned they are being held in ‘very poor’ conditions including children who were forced to sleep in a cramped facility with a convicted criminal.

Two groups – one made up of approximately 25 people, including a baby – were brought into Dover, Kent, early this morning by the RNLI Dover lifeboat on the second day in a row for calm seas, according to eyewitness reports. 

Pictures showed a group of migrants launching their dinghy from the coast of northern France ahead of the Channel crossing, with one man seen walking in the sea after having given up boarding the inflatable vessel. 

The crossing came as the Inspectorate of Prisons and the Dover and Heathrow Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) – made up of volunteers tasked by ministers – published their findings on migrant detention facilities visited in the last three months. 

Women who said they had been raped by smugglers were ‘not adequately supported’ and lone children were being held with unrelated adults, said the report.

Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, added that up to 45 children were seen sleeping on the floor ‘in an incredibly cramped facility with the lights on all night’.

He further expressed concern over one unit, which is intended to be for children only, containing adults including one with a criminal record.

A separate assessment of conditions found injuries, including serious burns, were not detected by staff or properly treated. 

Concerns were also raised over the ‘increasingly cold conditions’, particularly on double-decker buses sometimes used for sleeping.

Latest figures show UK authorities rescued or intercepted 36 people yesterday in the first Channel crossing since December 5 due to bad weather conditions. 

So far this year, more than 26,000 migrants have reached Britain since the start of the year, compared with 8,410 in the whole of 2020.

My Taylor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They [the children] get processed when they first arrive at Tug Haven then they’re moved to somewhere called Kent Intake Unit, where we’re seeing what looks like a normal doctor’s waiting room.

‘We’re seeing up to 45 children having to spend the night not even on mattresses, but just on the floor in an incredibly cramped facility with the lights on all night.

‘The other concern is they’re supposed to be for children only but we’re actually seeing adults in there including one adult with a criminal record, and also families in there as well, without a proper assessment of the risk these children may potentially be suffering.’

Speaking on the report’s findings, he added: ‘There have been a few minor improvements but we’re really concerned about the number of people who are arriving and the general chaos at Dover, and the fact that children unaccompanied, and often very vulnerable, just aren’t being looked after properly.’

In a statement, the Chief Inspector of Prisons also said: ‘Our last inspection in September 2020 found that these facilities were badly equipped to meet their purpose.

‘Following that inspection, we were assured by the Home Office that rapid action would be taken to improve both strategic planning and the conditions in which detainees were held. 

‘However, despite some limited progress, detainees, including large numbers of unaccompanied children, continued [in 2021] to experience very poor treatment and conditions.

‘It is unclear why there had been such delays following the assurances that we were given by the Home Office after our last inspection.  

‘Leaders told us of difficulties in co-ordinating the various partners whose co-operation was required, but this was not a sufficient explanation for why, one year later, we still found people being held for even longer in conditions that were so inadequate.’

National IMB chairman Dame Anne Owers, who was so concerned by the findings from her counterparts in Kent that she raised them with Home Office ministers, said: ‘It is clear that urgent action is required.’

The findings described families with young children among the many to spend over 24 hours in tents when arriving at the initial processing area in Tug Haven, Dover.

There were ‘significant’ safeguarding concerns over unaccompanied children being ‘regularly held together’ with other men, women and families in the same area.

According to the findings, inspectors were ‘concerned by inadequate follow-up care for two women who said they had been raped and another who said she had been sold into domestic servitude.’

And highlighting one case of serious burns, the report said a ’16-year-old girl who had fuel burns on her legs and had been at Tug Haven for two days wearing wet clothes did not have her injuries detected until she was admitted to the KIU. By this time the seam of her clothes had become embedded into the burns and a medic reported the girl was likely to be scarred for life.’

The findings also raised problems with those then moved to the Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) which ‘lacked either the infrastructure or staff’ to support the arrivals.

IMB found on one night, four coaches arrived and detainees had to sleep on the floor without proper sanitary arrangements. They described the conditions as ‘unacceptable and degrading but unavoidable, given the lack of regard to the centre’s ability to process arrivals’.

Mr Taylor’s report said about 2,000 people, including more than 700 lone children, had been held at KIU or Frontier House in the three months prior to October and November ‘for an average of more than 26 hours’, adding: ‘The longest detained person was held for over four days and the longest detained child had been held for over 90 hours.’

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Last month’s tragedy is a devastating reminder of the dangers of Channel crossings and that’s why we are overhauling our broken asylum system to protect lives and ensure people smugglers can’t profit from this crime.

‘We take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously and since these inspections we have continued to improve facilities and are opening new secure facilities.

‘The New Plan for Immigration is the only long-term solution to reform the system and build one which is fair on those who play by the rules, and firm on those who do not.’