Manston processing centre is one of three sites where survey work will be carried out as part of proposals for ‘rapid construction’ at immigration premises.
The Home Office has agreed a £1.1million contract with UK construction firm Laing O’Rourke which was one of four firms appointed by the Ministry of Justice in 2021 for a £1billion New Prisons Programme.
That programme was to build four new adult male prisons across the UK – creating over 6,000 new, prison places.
The firm has also worked on projects ranging from the Northern Line extension to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
The Home Office project is for “Design Services for a detained accommodation solution for the Home Office.”
As part of the contract site surveys will be carried out at Bexhill-on-Sea at a disused prison and training centre proposed for asylum accommodation, Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre and Manston (processing centre) sites “to carry out a visual inspection, identifying any immediate obvious construction / logistics challenges and opportunities.”
Laing is also asked to “Produce preliminary overlays of Immigration Removal Centres onto a drawing for each site, identifying a) number of buildings, b) number of storeys and c) approximate total sq. footage for the Immigration Removal Centre.”
The contract, categorised as “Prison building construction” and “services related to the detention or rehabilitation of criminals” started in July and is due to finish in October.
The brief specifies consulting “with Home Office to ascertain the requirements for Males, Females and Family detainees including site visits and attendance at meetings.”
The contract coincides with work to demolish and redevelop 10 buildings at the former MoD site.
Manston is not currently a removal centre. Its purpose is as a short term processing centre for security checks.
Last October and November the centre became overwhelmed with some 4,000 people. It is designed to hold between 1,000 and 1,500 people. People were facing significantly longer periods in the centre due to the high numbers making small boat crossings. Issues included reported cases of diphtheria, scabies and norovirus.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to the removal of foreign criminals and those with no right to be in the UK.
“Immigration removal centres play a vital role in controlling our borders and we have been finding further solutions to scale up our detention capacity.”
The Home Office says new detention sites under the contract are not yet confirmed and Manston currently continues to operate as a short term processing facility.
Last week the government said: “The introduction of new asylum accommodation large sites will look to provide safe, suitable, and more cost-effective accommodation for asylum seekers. In doing so, they will help to end the government’s use of hotels to accommodate migrants who have entered the UK illegally..
“The sharp increase in crossings means about 49,000 destitute migrants are currently being accommodated in hotels, additionally nearly 10,000 individuals in hotels under the Afghan resettlement schemes – costing the taxpayer almost £6 million a day.
“This severe pressure on the system means claims from genuine asylum seekers are taking too long to process and is taking away from resources to support people through safe and legal routes to the UK.”
