How do we clean up the Manston mess: is government ‘othering’ of asylum seekers going too far?
Here’s what we know, according to the BBC:
Two former prime ministers and three former home secretaries may have to give evidence to an inquiry into serious allegations of chaos and unlawful activity at a centre used to hold cross-Channel migrants.
An internal Home Office document reveals that allegations of failures at the Manston holding centre in 2022 are likely to be “reputationally damaging” to the department.
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The document, released after a legal challenge, shows there were at least 39 reports of failings as the centre became overwhelmed that year.
Incidents include a death in custody, unlawful detention of adults and children and Home Office officials charged with conspiracy to steal and misconduct in public office.
An inquiry into what happened at Manston has just begun and is headed by an independent senior barrister – but she does not have powers to compel people to give evidence.
Former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak may have to give evidence, as may former home secretaries Dame Priti Patel, Suella Braverman and Grant Shapps.
During 2022, the Home Office took over the former military facility near Ramsgate to help it cope with the number of migrants arriving in the UK in small boats and claiming asylum. By late summer it was overcrowded and at one point held around 4,000 people – three times more than its capacity.
At one point the crisis was so bad that the then home secretary Braverman was publicly fending off claims in Parliament that she had mishandled what to do with the arriving migrants.
Weeks later, Hussein Haseeb Ahmed, 31, died in hospital after seemingly contracting diphtheria at the centre, although it was not established if that was the cause of his death.
Earlier this year a legal hearing relating to Manston and the scope of the inquiry revealed the existence of a document listing all the allegations of potential failures. A High Court judge then ordered its disclosure to BBC News, the Guardian and the Independent.
A spokesperson said that it would be inappropriate to comment further on the inquiry while it was ongoing.
Observers, human rights groups, and even some legal experts would say this situation reflects how the then-Tory government’s attitude toward asylum seekers had hardened to a potentially dangerous and dehumanizing degree.
I reported on the situation at the time. It deteriorated so far that a child put a message in a bottle – begging for help – and threw it over the fence in the hope that it would be picked up. You can read about that here.
Conditions at the Manston centre, as described in the Home Office report, went far beyond bureaucratic failure or logistical missteps.
This was potential unlawful detention, serious health risks, a death in custody, and criminal misconduct by officials.
Those aren’t just unfortunate oversights — they suggest a systemic failure, perhaps fuelled by a political environment increasingly focussed on deterrence rather than protection or dignity.
The fact that senior political figures — including two former prime ministers — may have to explain their roles signals how deeply this issue runs.
It’s not just about what happened on the ground at Manston; it’s about what kind of policy climate enabled or overlooked these conditions.
Think about that: the rhetoric around immigration in the UK has increasingly leaned on framing asylum seekers as threats — not people fleeing persecution, war, or hardship.
This “othering” — portraying migrants as dangerous, as burdens, or as undeserving — can desensitize decision-makers and the public alike to the actual human impact of policy.
And in places like Manston, that seems to have manifested as overcrowding, disease outbreaks, children unlawfully held, and – ultimately – death.
Even more telling is that it took a legal challenge to get this internal document released.
Transparency wasn’t offered — it had to be forced.
That suggests there was concern about public backlash, which again points to an awareness within the Home Office of the severity of what happened.
The question now is, what’s going to happen? This Writer’s instinct is: not a lot.
The current government may feign moral high ground by criticising previous mismanagement, but it is still acting within the same political framework: toughness on immigration=electoral palatability, and it will want to avoid being outflanked by the right-wing press or parties.
That kind of public posturing — condemning how policies were implemented while keeping what the policies are — is classic political survivalism. The tragedy is that it leaves very little room for serious reform or genuine accountability. The inquiry risks becoming more about optics than substance – a ritual cleansing.
The wider issue is the electorate’s shifting perception of migrants and asylum seekers — a shift that has been actively cultivated over the past decade.
When governments repeatedly use migration as a scapegoat for systemic problems — housing shortages, NHS backlogs, crime — they create the moral cover for brutal policies. They teach the public that cruelty is not just necessary, but effective.
There will be people in the UK who hear this story and rejoice at what happened.
So unless there’s a much bigger shift in political discourse or public values, it’s hard to imagine meaningful change.
The fact that Yvette Cooper — someone who once described parts of the asylum system as “broken” and needing more compassion — is now the Home Secretary overseeing this, shows just how deep the triangulation goes.
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The Manston mess: is government ‘othering’ of asylum seekers going too far?
How do we clean up the Manston mess: is government ‘othering’ of asylum seekers going too far?
Here’s what we know, according to the BBC:
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Observers, human rights groups, and even some legal experts would say this situation reflects how the then-Tory government’s attitude toward asylum seekers had hardened to a potentially dangerous and dehumanizing degree.
I reported on the situation at the time. It deteriorated so far that a child put a message in a bottle – begging for help – and threw it over the fence in the hope that it would be picked up. You can read about that here.
Conditions at the Manston centre, as described in the Home Office report, went far beyond bureaucratic failure or logistical missteps.
This was potential unlawful detention, serious health risks, a death in custody, and criminal misconduct by officials.
Those aren’t just unfortunate oversights — they suggest a systemic failure, perhaps fuelled by a political environment increasingly focussed on deterrence rather than protection or dignity.
The fact that senior political figures — including two former prime ministers — may have to explain their roles signals how deeply this issue runs.
It’s not just about what happened on the ground at Manston; it’s about what kind of policy climate enabled or overlooked these conditions.
Think about that: the rhetoric around immigration in the UK has increasingly leaned on framing asylum seekers as threats — not people fleeing persecution, war, or hardship.
This “othering” — portraying migrants as dangerous, as burdens, or as undeserving — can desensitize decision-makers and the public alike to the actual human impact of policy.
And in places like Manston, that seems to have manifested as overcrowding, disease outbreaks, children unlawfully held, and – ultimately – death.
Even more telling is that it took a legal challenge to get this internal document released.
Transparency wasn’t offered — it had to be forced.
That suggests there was concern about public backlash, which again points to an awareness within the Home Office of the severity of what happened.
The question now is, what’s going to happen? This Writer’s instinct is: not a lot.
The current government may feign moral high ground by criticising previous mismanagement, but it is still acting within the same political framework: toughness on immigration=electoral palatability, and it will want to avoid being outflanked by the right-wing press or parties.
That kind of public posturing — condemning how policies were implemented while keeping what the policies are — is classic political survivalism. The tragedy is that it leaves very little room for serious reform or genuine accountability. The inquiry risks becoming more about optics than substance – a ritual cleansing.
The wider issue is the electorate’s shifting perception of migrants and asylum seekers — a shift that has been actively cultivated over the past decade.
When governments repeatedly use migration as a scapegoat for systemic problems — housing shortages, NHS backlogs, crime — they create the moral cover for brutal policies. They teach the public that cruelty is not just necessary, but effective.
There will be people in the UK who hear this story and rejoice at what happened.
So unless there’s a much bigger shift in political discourse or public values, it’s hard to imagine meaningful change.
The fact that Yvette Cooper — someone who once described parts of the asylum system as “broken” and needing more compassion — is now the Home Secretary overseeing this, shows just how deep the triangulation goes.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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