Ministers face questions as migrant crisis worsens

Suella Braverman is under pressure to answer questions about worsening conditions at a migrant processing centre in Kent said to be overcrowded.

The home secretary faces demands from Labour and a senior Tory MP to address the Commons over the situation at the site in Manston.

Hundreds of people were moved there on Sunday after a fire attack at a separate migrant facility in Dover.

The government said it was controlling immigration and deterring traffickers.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Tory MP Sir Roger Gale visited the Manston centre on Sunday to discuss solutions to ease pressure on the site.

Sir Roger raised concerns over reports that Ms Braverman decided against moving more migrants to nearby hotels.

Speaking to BBC South East, Sir Roger said it was "wrong" for Ms Braverman not to commission more hotel rooms, and said it was causing a backlog.

He said he had been assured 650 migrants would be moved of Manston and into hotels or temporary accommodation this week.

Sir Roger and Labour MPs want the home secretary to answer MPs' questions about this in the House of Commons later.

Concerns over the conditions facing migrants at Manston came as dozens of charities called for a "kind and effective system" for migrants.

An open letter to Ms Braverman - signed by charities including Christian Aid and Save the Children - urged safer routes for people to come to the UK.

It said: "You have referred to this country's proud history of offering sanctuary, so we ask you to make this happen with a fair, kind and effective system for refugees.

"Deal with the backlog in asylum cases, create safe routes, respect international law, and the UN convention on refugees, and give refugees a fair hearing, however they get here. Then you would have really done something worth dreaming about."

Sir Roger said about 4,000 migrants are currently housed at the former Royal Air Force base, which was designed to process up to 1,000. Some had been there five weeks, Sir Roger said.

So far this year 39,430 people have made the dangerous journey from France on small boats.

The UK is spending almost £7m a day on hotels for asylum seekers - and the cost is likely to rise, MPs heard last week.

The government has said in the year ending June 2022, there were 63,089 asylum applications, 77% more than in 2019.

The Guardian reported on Sunday there were now at least eight cases of diphtheria and a case of MRSA at Manston.

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the government needed to "overhaul the whole system".

She said: "We need a new agreement in place with France around the Channel crossings, and we need a significant increase in the activities of the National Crime Agency because we've got a proliferation of criminal activities in the Channel that has increased in the couple of years."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The UK has a proud history of providing protection for those who genuinely need it through our safe and legal routes, recently welcoming hundreds of thousands of people from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

"The public rightly expects us to control immigration, at a time when the number of people arriving in the UK via small boats has reached record levels, placing pressure on the asylum system and stretching our capacity to support those in need.

"We are using every tool at our disposal to deter illegal migration, disrupt the business model of people smugglers and relocate to Rwanda, those with no right to be in the UK."

She was reappointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said she had accepted she made a mistake, last week.