Inside the Migrant Gateway to Britain – Whistleblowers

They are the first words uttered by boat migrants to British authorities after they set foot on our soil: ‘Where is the hotel?’

It is what they invariably say when they get off buses at the giant migrant reception camp on a former RAF base in Manston, Kent – the centre that processes all who arrive on traffickers’ boats.

We know this because, for the first time, whistleblowers at Manston have talked to the Mail in an investigation that lays bare in terrifying detail how overwhelmed staff struggle to adequately process the sheer numbers of migrants arriving on peak crossing days at Manston’s doors.

The whistleblowers told us that inadequate checks mean they are powerless to prevent migrants who have criminal pasts from being released on to Britain’s streets, and staying in hotels across the country.

‘They ask us that hotel question immediately,’ a young male worker at the camp said this week. ‘They expect to get a hotel bed straight away and that is one key reason they come to the UK. We are told not to answer – to distract them by offering a bag of crisps or a bottle of water.’

So pressing is the concern about where they will stay, added the workers, that ‘only the fear of not being given a hotel stops them misbehaving or running out of control at the camp. They could overwhelm us by sheer numbers in what feels like a tinderbox about to explode’.

The Manston workers said they are told by the Home Office to refer to the thousands of migrants passing through the camp as ‘residents’ as if they are paying guests.

Alarmingly, they are instructed not to talk about their private life to migrants, who are mainly young men, in case the information puts them at risk after the strangers leave the camp and are free to roam Britain.

‘We must not say if we have children, for instance, or where we live because our families could be targeted by one of these foreign men at a later date,’ the Mail was told.

The whistleblowers talked to the Mail on the phone, via social media, face to face, and through intermediaries.

All spoke on the condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals from the Home Office which runs the camp amid great secrecy.

Some have left Manston recently; others still do occasional shifts there on security, medical, cleaning, catering or administration duties.

What emerged from our conversations is a deeply concerning picture of a migrant reception centre they described as ‘chaos’ and ‘a joke’.

And crucially, a centre where migrants ‘routinely lie’ about their backgrounds, their ages, and their nationalities – so no one can discover whether they have a criminal past.

‘Most coming in are men. No one knows who they are, or their history,’ a worker said.

‘The men could be murderers or paedophiles. They throw away their identity documents either in France before getting on a boat or at sea when they are travelling over.’

Another worker added: ‘We know what the migrants tell us is often a falsehood but there is nothing we can do. We have to write it on their records as though it is the truth.

‘Time and again, the migrants give us the same fantasy story as if they have learned a script. The Afghans say they are running from the Taliban. Some Africans from strict religious countries say they are gay and they will be killed at home for their homosexuality. A lot even give the same birth date of January 1.’

A third worker explained: ‘Britain is being hoodwinked. We have to accept at face value that their name and country is correct. There is no way of telling because, since Brexit, the EU police don’t allow Britain to cross check the fingerprints or information collected when the migrant first entered Europe before arriving at Calais for the boats.

‘Some will have been deported from EU countries for crimes. Some will have spent time in prison abroad.

‘But we don’t know – we can only start with a blank sheet. Yet within days these strangers are sprinkled around the country. If they are considered a potential danger to us staff, why are they not considered a risk to the British public?’ At least 150,000 migrants have arrived on traffickers’ boats to Britain in the last seven years.

Nearly 2,000 have sailed over in the last 8 days, bringing the tally since Labour took office last July close to 40,000.

Today, hundreds more throng on the French coast waiting to cross the 21 miles to Dover.

All the boat arrivals are put on buses from Dover port to Manston reception camp for fingerprinting and background checks.

They spend 24 hours in a ‘custody’ marquee, before being moved to on-site chalets for up to three days as medicals are performed and more forms filled in.

At least 90 per cent of them claim asylum, telling Manston staff they face persecution, oppression, or war in their home country. They are not allowed mobiles at the camp, but are permitted to use on-site phones to call immigration lawyers for advice.

Within ‘normally just 72 hours’, they are bussed out, in vehicles with darkened windows and often at night, to requisitioned hotels or leased Home Office houses up and down Britain.

‘The Manston staff are getting depressed, even suicidal,’ claimed one of our informants.

‘As for the migrants themselves, the men often have sexually transmitted diseases, and scabies affects a lot of them.

‘I have seen foreign mothers so tired and dehydrated as they waited in the custody marquee on a hard seat, that they nearly let their babies slip from their laps to the ground.

‘The sights you see are unimaginable. Some ‘residents’ are whole families of three generations from the grandfather to his grandchildren. They are clearly here seeking a better life but still claim to be asylum seekers.’

Our probe into the camp coincided with a damning report this week that exposed the extent of child rape grooming gangs in Britain’s towns and cities.

The author, Baroness Casey, revealed for the first time that asylum seekers and foreign nationals are involved in a ‘significant proportion’ of the around 12 live police investigations into this hideous crime.

The disclosure has led Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to accept Baroness Casey’s recommendation for the mandatory collection of the ethnicity and nationality of all child sex abuse suspects. Foreign-born paedophiles will, in future, be banned from claiming asylum.

Ministry of Justice data also shows that one in five child-sex offence convictions involves foreign nationals.

The worrying statistic was handed to the Independent MP Rupert Lowe, who is running his own national ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’ after the Government initially refused to do so. He says not a ‘single foreign national should be in our country raping children’.

Shadow Home Secretary, Tory Chris Philp has also stated that a ‘significant’ number of the paedophiles involved in grooming gangs are asylum seekers or foreigners.  ‘More illegal immigrants have entered the UK across the Channel so far this year than any other in history,’ he added.

All this is highly relevant to what is going on at Manston and begs the question of whether the checks made there are worth the paper they are printed on.

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What is plainly an asylum charade has been going on for years. It began well before Manston was opened in 2022 in response to traffickers sending more and more small boats with migrants across the Channel.

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What is certain, is that some asylum seekers – including a number of those coming in on the boats through Manston and currently living in hotels – are involved in sex crimes against under-age British women and girls. (ER: This is the heterosexual theme playing out. We wonder to what extent underage boys are targeted, too.)

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CONTINUE READING HERE

Featured image source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/23/revealed-home-office-completely-lost-grip-at-notorious-manston-asylum-centre

Featured image source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/01/manston-migrant-exodus-begins-thousands-prepare-life-outside/

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Published to UK Reloaded  from Europe Reloaded