Asylum-seekers from Manston center left disserted in London

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Groups of asylum-seekers were seen abandoned in central London after being transported from the Manston immigration center in Kent.

A group of 11 asylum-seekers from Manston was left at Victoria railway station Tuesday evening without proper winter clothes, according to Under One Sky, a volunteer-led initiative supporting people living on the streets of London, The Guardian said Wednesday in an exclusive report.

Many of the asylum-seekers spotted were in flip-flops and were provided with emergency supplies of food and clothes by the charity.

“They were stressed, disturbed and completely disoriented,” Danial Abbas, a volunteer with the charity, was quoted as saying by the British daily.

The asylum-seekers were from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, some of them wrapped in blankets, and “they were also very hungry,” Abbas said.

Another group of 50 asylum-seekers was spotted earlier this week in and around Victoria Coach Station after they were deposited by a coach from Kent, according to the report.

The overcrowding and conditions at Manston center have been widely criticized for the past week as around 4,000 people were kept there for processing and they were forced to share the accommodations, which are suitable for around 1,600 people under normal conditions.

The issue has been raised by the opposition parties in the House of Commons alongside the criticism over the UK’s “broken” asylum system – a description by Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Braverman’s remarks came Monday as she made a statement on a petrol bomb attack on a Home Office center where asylum-seekers are being housed while their claims are processed in Dover.

“Four percent of people arriving in small boats last year had their asylum claim processed,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said during the Prime Minister’s Questions session Wednesday, criticizing the asylum system.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the number of asylum-seekers at the center had fallen, as many have been transferred.

Late Wednesday, Jenrick said he expects Manston to return to a "legally compliant site" soon and the Home Office was now facing a judicial review over the center.

"I believe we have received the initial contact for a judicial review,” he told Sky News.

"That's not unusual. This is a highly litigious area of policy. But of course, as the minister responsible, I want to make sure everything we do is conducted appropriately and within the law."

-‘Invasion’

Braverman also likened the Channel crossings as an “invasion” in her statement earlier this week.

“Let’s be clear about what is really going on here: the British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not,” she said.

“Let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows that is not true…We need to be straight with the public. The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control, and too many people are interested in playing political parlor games, covering up the truth, than solving the problem,” she added.

Her remarks have since drawn reaction from many charities and members of parliament.