Confirmation that a permanent removal centre is planned at Manston alongside the current asylum seeker processing centre has been received from the Home Office, says Thanet council leader Rick Everitt.
Cllr Everitt initially wrote to then immigration minister Robert Jenrick MP about the matter last November, prompted by information from Kent County Council that the government was planning to build the secure migrant removal centre at Manston with accommodation for 360 people at the outset, later to rise to 700.
The Home Office agreed a £1.1million contract with UK construction firm Laing O’Rourke for “Design Services for a detained accommodation solution.”
£700m programme
In December a contract published by government, with an estimated value excluding VAT of £700m over a term of 6 years, said: “The Home Office is currently transforming the site at Manston to establish permanent, purpose-built facilities, coordinated by the Manston Transformation Programme.
“The Programme is looking for partner(s) to deliver a suitable operation and wrap around services for the operations at Western Jet Foil and Manston, plus Medical Services, for an initial term of 6 years with an option to extend for an additional 2 x 24 month periods.”
At that time the Home Office said new detention sites under the contract were not yet confirmed and Manston would continue to operate as a short term processing facility.
But at a Thanet council meeting last night (February 22), Cllr Everitt said: “In December I referred to the government’s plans to establish a secure migrant removal centre at Manston and its failure to engage properly with this council over that.
“At that time there was some scepticism on the other side over the truth of this situation.
“Since then I have met online with Home Office ministers who confirm this is their intention alongside the existing processing centre.
“It is for government to communicate its plans to the public. The officials said when we met that that would have been done by now. I can only conclude that the government is embarrassed by the apparent logical disjunction between its claim that it will stop the boats and its intention to make a major long term investment on detaining and removing the people who arrive on them but perhaps an election is due.
“North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale made a rather strange public intervention claiming these facilities could be handed over to this council to accommodate Thanet residents requiring temporary accommodation.
“This was as much news to the Home Office as it was to us. It is not a likely scenario.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Illegal Migration Act means people who come to the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed, to their home country or a safe third country.
The Home Office says Manston is a short term holding facility where the vast majority of arrivals stay for 24 hours or less.
Manston Transformation Programme
A Manston Transformation Programme has been established to develop the site and an End-to-End Manston Readiness Board has also been established, bringing together senior leaders from across the Home Office.
In October and November 2022, the processing centre at Manston became overwhelmed with some 4,000 people. It is designed to hold between 1,000 and 1,500 people as temporary short-term accommodation while immigration checks are made.
