A trade union that represents many Home Office staff is joining a legal action against the home secretary over “horrendous, inhumane and dangerous” conditions at the Manston processing centre for people arriving in the country by small boat.
The Public and Commercial Services union, the UK’s largest union for civil servants, counts among its members Border Force staff, enforcement officers and caseworkers making decisions about whether to detain small boat arrivals.
The union is joining a legal action brought by the charity Detention Action and a woman who was placed at Manston, where initial processing of small boat arrivals takes place.
Detainees are only supposed to be held at the centre for 24 hours and the site has a maximum capacity of 1,600. In recent weeks people have been held there for periods in excess of 32 days and there have been about 4,000 on the site, although the Home Office says it has now moved many people elsewhere.
On Thursday, the government conceded that the centre, near Ramsgate in Kent, was not operating legally, with the climate minister, Graham Stuart, saying: “None of us are comfortable with it.”
The announcement that the union representing some of its own workforce is embarking on a legal action against the Home Office comes after a troubled week for the department.
Along with growing concerns about conditions at Manston, including overcrowding, the spread of infectious diseases and poor sanitation, it was revealed by the Guardian that groups of asylum seekers released from Manston have been dumped at Victoria station in central London.
On Saturday police confirmed that the firebombing of an immigration processing centre in Dover, Western Jet Foil, was motivated by an extreme right-wing terrorist ideology.
Andrew Leak, 66, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, is believed to have killed himself after throwing two or three “crude” incendiary devices at the Kent site. Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said evidence had been recovered that indicated the attack “was motivated by a terrorist ideology”.
Separately, there was a disturbance at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow in the early hours of Saturday after a prolonged power cut at the centre.
Speaking about the Manston legal challenge, the PCS head of bargaining, Paul O’Connor, said: “We’re taking this action because conditions at Manston are desperate and a disgrace. We cannot and will not countenance our members and detainees being subjected to these horrendous, inhumane and dangerous conditions.
“We’re aware of detainees sleeping in cold, overcrowded marquees on the floor without bedding; of incidents of violence including at least one incident of sexual violence; of self-harm and suicide attempts; of filthy toilets; of appalling sanitation; of infectious disease spreading due to conditions; and of people going hungry. The home secretary is acting outside the law, as her own minister acknowledges, and there are, we believe, many detainees now held illegally at Manston.”
He added: “Our members are seriously concerned they’re being required to act unlawfully by the home secretary and that they are themselves at risk in the chaotic and lawless environment that has developed at Manston due to the catastrophic failures of the home secretary. We’re asking her to agree to desist from holding detainees beyond the 24-hour statutory time limit at Manston.”
The pre-action legal letter has been issued by Duncan Lewis solicitors, which is acting for the three claimants who are raising concerns.
The letter says the union ‘is aware of no (or certainly no clear rational) plan to address the position of the significant numbers still detained unlawfully at Manston House”.
It states that PCS members “are acutely concerned that they are being required by the secretary of state to act unlawfully in relation to those held at Manston House, including in processing the cases or facilitating the detention of individuals who are unlawfully deprived of their liberty and of access to justice.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
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