Channel Migrants in Line for Millions in Compensation

WILL JONES

Channel small boat migrants are in line for millions of pounds in compensation from the Home Office for being “unlawfully” detained in “inhumane” conditions as almost 200 lodge legal claims under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Telegraph has more.

Almost 200 asylum seekers have lodged legal claims for their unlawful detention and mistreatment by the Home Office at the Manston migrant holding centre near Dover, citing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Allegations include sexual assault, physical abuse and theft of property by guards, as well as disease-ridden, dirty and cold conditions, with outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies, forcible separation of families and denial of medical aid.

The Home Office has refused to settle, forcing lawyers for the asylum seekers to pursue the claims in court.

Standard compensation awards for detaining migrants for longer than the 24 hours allowed by law amount to £500 per 24 hours of unlawful detention, but courts can hand out aggravated or exemplary damages.

The Home Office estimates some 18,000 migrants went through Manston, opening the door to further compensation claims for their mistreatment.

A migrant unlawfully detained at Brook House immigration removal centre at Gatwick for three months and subjected to degrading or inhuman treatment was awarded £203,995 in damages last October.

Manston is currently used as a short-term holding facility for Channel arrivals but defence minister Luke Pollard said on Monday its role could be expanded to also take migrants from hotels, under Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to use more military sites to house asylum seekers.

Internal documents have warned that the failures at the former RAF base under the last Conservative Government in 2022 are likely to be “reputationally damaging” to the department.

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Worth reading in full.

Via The Daily Sceptic

UK faces ‘millions in payouts’ to channel migrants over ‘inhumane’ conditions at holding centre

RUTH LAWES

Almost 200 channel migrants could be awarded millions in compensation from the Home Office over claims of appalling conditions and unlawful detention at a holding centre near Dover.

The asylum seekers have brought legal action against the UK government after alleging ‘inhumane’ treatment including sexual assault and physical abuse at Manston migrant holding centre between June and November 2022 during the Conservative leadership.

They have also alleged outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies, denial of medical care, theft of property by guards, cold and unsanitary conditions, forcible separation of families, and unlawful detention beyond the 24-hour legal limit.

It comes months after the Home Office announced a public inquiry into alleged mistreatment of migrants at Manston, where some people were placed in tents in 2022. The results have not yet been published.

The situation at Manston was said to have reached a nadir in 2022 after concerns were raised about overcrowding at the site, which has a 1,600-person capacity but was holding 4,000 people in November that year.

Health authorities said at the time that migrants at the site, which is used to process people who have arrived by small boats to the UK, would be vaccinated against diphtheria after an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in England.

According to The Telegraph, six legal firms are representing 194 asylum seekers. It also claims the Home Office has refused to settle out of court.

Internal documents reportedly voice concern the claims could be “reputationally damaging” to the Home Office.

Emily Soothill, partner at Deighton Pierce Glynn, Bristol, who is representing some of the migrants, told The Law Society Gazette: “We understand that physical violence and racist language were used against asylum seekers, that detainees attempted to self-harm using barbed wire and that people were locked in isolation vans allegedly as a form of punishment.

“Infectious diseases were also allowed to spread and an asylum seeker sadly died of diphtheria.”

She added: “We consider that our clients and thousands of others were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that human rights were breached. There now needs to be an Article 3–compliant public inquiry into how this was allowed to happen and accountability for the significant harm suffered.”

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