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A trade union representing a number of Home Office workers is taking legal action against the home secretary over “intimidating, abusive and abusive” conditions at the Manston processing center for people who arriving in the country in a small boat.
The Public Service and Trade union, the UK’s largest public sector union, includes members of the Border Force, enforcement officers and caseworkers who decide whether to take small ships have arrived.
The union is involved in legal action brought by a charity and a woman stationed at Manston, where the first arrangements were made for the arrival of small boats.
The center requires a 24-hour stay and has a maximum capacity of 1,600. In recent weeks people have stayed there for periods of more than 32 days, and around 4,000 are on site, although the Home Office says people have been moved elsewhere.
On Thursday, the government admitted that the centre, near Ramsgate in Kent, was not operating legally, with the climate minister, Graham Stuart, saying: “None of us want to him.”
The announcement that the union representing some of its own staff is taking legal action against the Home Office comes after a tumultuous week for the department.
With growing concern about conditions at Manston, including overcrowding, the spread of infectious diseases and a lack of sanitation, the Guardian revealed that groups of asylum seekers in sent from Manston dropped off at Victoria station in central London.
On Saturday police confirmed that the arson attack at an immigration processing center in Dover, Western Jet Foil, was the result of a right-wing terrorist plot.
Andrew Leak, 66, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, is believed to have killed himself after throwing two or three incendiary devices at the Kent site. Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said it had found evidence to suggest the attack was “terrorist in nature”.
Separately, there was trouble at the Harmondsworth immigration center near Heathrow in the early hours of Saturday after a prolonged power cut at the centre.
Commenting on Manston’s legal challenge, PCS head of marketing, Paul O’Connor, said: “We are taking this action because Manston’s circumstances are very sad and shame We cannot look away from our members and those who are imprisoned under these cruel, evil, cruel conditions.
“We know prisoners who sleep in cold, crowded cells on the floor without beds; of incidents of violence, including at least one incident of violence; of self-harm and suicide; of dirty toilets; of cleanliness; the spread of infectious disease by means of methods; and those who are starving. The home secretary is acting outside the law, according to his own minister, and we believe many prisoners have now been detained in Manston.”
He added: “Our members are very concerned that they are being asked to break the Home Secretary’s rule and are at risk in the senseless and lawless environment it has created. in Manston because of the damage done by the home secretary. We are asking her to agree to a ban on holding prisoners beyond the 24-hour period prescribed by law in Manston.”
The pre-action legal letter was issued by Duncan Lewis solicitors, who are acting on behalf of the three claimants, citing concerns.
According to the letter, ‘the union is not aware of (or does not clearly understand) a plan to address the situation of the large number of people who continue to be illegal at Manston House”.
It says PCS members are “deeply concerned that the secretary of state is being asked to take legal action against those held at Manston House, including the management of cases or to administer the detention of individuals deprived of their liberty. of access to justice.”
The Home Office has been approached for information.
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