Ahmed – not his real name – stated that 130 people were forced to share a single huge tent at the Manston processing center, where they were treated like “animals.”
In recent days, the camp, which was designed to house 1,600 people, reportedly housed more than 4,000 migrants.
But Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick insists that the number is declining.
Ahmed, who left the facility on Monday after spending 24 days there, recalled being forced to sleep on the floor and prohibited from using the restroom, taking a shower, or exercising outside.
He told that he fled Iran in quest of freedom and to avoid persecution, as he had been in fear for his life.
Ahmed added that after landing in the United Kingdom and at the center, people were prohibited from calling their families to let them know they had safely made the border.
“For the 24 days I’m in there, I can’t phone my family to tell them I’m dead or alive; they have no idea where I am,” he stated.
“Everyone in that area has a family. They should be aware of our situation.”
Manston, a former military installation in Kent, opened in February as a processing center for the growing number of migrants arriving in small boats in the United Kingdom. Migrants are intended to be detained there for brief durations while completing security and identification checks.
They are then expected to be transferred to the Home Office’s asylum accommodation system, which frequently involves hotels due to a lack of adequate housing.
Manston grew even more congested over the weekend as 700 refugees were transferred there from a Dover facility that was destroyed.
Several hundred asylum seekers were evacuated from the Manston center on Tuesday, according to Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale of Kent.
More will go during the week, he said, adding, “This must never happen again.”
Mr. Jenrick tweeted on Tuesday that the number of people detained at the center had “much decreased.”
“Unless we receive an unusually large number of migrants in small boats in the next days, the number of migrants will decrease dramatically this week,” he said. “The site must restore a sustainable operating model, and we are doing all possible to guarantee that this occurs as soon as possible.”
However, according to the British Red Cross, “the major flaws at Manston are indicative of broader faults inside the asylum system.”
This year, a large number of migrants have landed in the United Kingdom. Kent has had roughly 40,000 arrivals so far this year, with nearly 1,000 crossing the Channel on Saturday alone.
At an undisclosed Home Office facility in Kent, children are compelled to sleep on the floor. The images depict a minimally decorated room with a few books and a box of Scrabble as amusement to help facility residents pass the time.
There is writing in multiple languages written on the walls above a row of fixed plastic chairs.
The administration is under intense pressure to combat the increase of small boat crossings and to expedite the processing of migrants already in the United Kingdom.
Opposition parties have accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of disregarding legal counsel that instructed her to get more hotel rooms to minimize overcrowding at the center.
Ms. Braverman denied the charges
During a tense House of Commons session, the home secretary was again accused of employing incendiary rhetoric after stating that southern England was facing an “invasion” of migrants.
According to the Refugee Council, her rhetoric was “appalling, incorrect, and dangerous.” Later, her immigration minister, Mr. Jenrick, stated that politicians must be mindful of their words when discussing migration concerns.
And according to the official spokeswoman for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak assured his cabinet on Tuesday that the United Kingdom would “always be a compassionate, accepting country.”
In the meantime, counterterrorism police have taken over the investigation into the Sunday arson attack on an immigration processing center in Dover, Kent.
Andrew Leak, 66, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, allegedly committed suicide after carrying out an act motivated by “some type of hate-filled resentment.”
