Taxpayers fork out £3m on ‘cells’ to manage ‘disorder’ at processing center for small boat migrants

The Government is spending almost £3 million on prison-like cells at its processing center for small boat migrants.

A Ministry of Justice contract seen by The Sun shows the new “confinement” units must provide “suitable accommodation and facilities to deal with potential incidents of disorder”.

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Manston in Kent, opened in February 2022, is used for short-term accommodation for processing asylum seekers, many of whom arrive in small boats across the English Channel.

People should be kept there for a short period periods time while they go through security and identity checks.

It made headlines two years ago when overcrowding led to thousands of people being forced into to sleep in tents and diseases such as diphtheria spread throughout the camp.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman was criticized for letting the country become “overloaded” with people.

A legal inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of asylum seekers at Manston is expected to be launched following the troubles in 2022.

The Home Office previously said that “significant improvements” have been made to the website since then.

At its peak, around 4,000 people were detained there, some for long periods of time, due to a lack of available accommodation elsewhere.

The planned expansion of confinement units at the site is expected to be completed in July with a contract, signed on April 26, worth up to £2,966,140.02.

Salford-based company Keir Construction Ltd is completing work on the Home Office site.

The processing center in Kent has been earmarked for use until 2030 – despite Rishi Sunak’s promise to stop the boats.

There were plans to build a “removal center” next door to the existing processing buildings, but these were shelved earlier this year.

So far, more than 10,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats – a new record for this stage of the year.

Immigration has become a key battleground for the election, with both parties promising different ways to stop Channel crossings.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to crack down on criminals, making migrants’ travel easier with a new cross-border police unit and more security cooperation with Europe.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, he promised to reduce net migration and ban “bad bosses” from hiring foreigners.

He said: “If you trust me with the keys to number 10, I will make this promise: I will control our borders and ensure that British businesses are helped to hire British people first.”

Rishi Sunak has promised flights to Rwanda will take off if he wins the election in July, telling The Sun: “You have to make it clear to everyone that if you come here illegally you cannot stay.”

He said: “If I win, all the people we have detained will board these flights and these flights will go to Rwanda.

“These people have been detained, the flights are booked, the airfields are on standby, the escorts are there, the casework is happening and these flights will go away because that’s how we build a deterrent.”