Jenrick rebuked for not providing evidence to asylum detention inquiry

Former immigration minister criticised by inquiry chair for failing to give statement about ‘wretched’ Manston site

The former Conservative immigration minister Robert Jenrick has been rebuked by the chair of an inquiry for failing to provide vital evidence about conditions for small boat arrivals at a controversial processing centre.

The independent Manston inquiry was set up to examine the events surrounding the detention of thousands of people who arrived by small boat between 1 June 2022 and 22 November 2022 and were held at a former military base in Manston, Kent.

The Reform shadow chancellor was the Tory immigration minister when conditions at the base deteriorated.

An asylum seeker Hussein Haseeb Ahmed fell ill with diphtheria at the site and later died from complications relating to it in hospital.

The Manston site opened at the beginning of 2022 – a year in which a record of about 46,000 people arrived in the UK by small boats. The site was designed to hold a maximum of 1,600 people for periods of 24 hours or less. But after a failure to move enough detainees from the site to make space for new arrivals, there were 4,000 people temporarily housed at the centre at its busiest.

Conditions were squalid. Faeces overflowed from toilets and people were forced to sleep on the floor for extended periods. There were also major outbreaks of diseases including scabies and diphtheria.

Jenrick admitted to parliament that people were being kept at Manston for longer than he would have liked. After the then independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration David Neal visited Manston in October 2022, he told MPs that conditions were “wretched” and “really dangerous”.