Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 29
29
Accepted
Paragraph: 137
Ensure sufficient capacity for migrant processing, checks, and transfers at Dover.
Recommendation
The Government must ensure that there is enough physical and staff capacity to conduct necessary searches, fingerprinting, identity and initial vulnerability checks consistently on all migrants arriving at Dover before they are transferred to Yarl’s Wood or other Home Office facilities.
Government Response Summary
The government has implemented a two-site processing model at Dover, increased staffing at Western Jetfoil and Manston by 86% in three months, and aims to almost triple staff numbers by year-end to ensure consistent checks on migrants.
Paragraph Reference:
137
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government takes its responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for those arriving via small boats very seriously. Over the last 12 months the Home Office has transformed arrangements to control those arriving by small boat. We have moved to a two-site model which sees humanitarian needs prioritised at Western Jetfoil ahead of initial immigration and asylum processing at Manston. That two-site model has also seen our processes and procedures reviewed and refreshed so that all the required security and identity checks and biometric registration, as well as initial vulnerability and welfare assessments, are carried out sequentially and consistently, and with appropriate assurance mechanisms, ahead of arriving migrants being placed into asylum accommodation or detention if the individual’s circumstances mean there is a realistic prospect of imminent removal or if they are to be prosecuted for relevant offences. We have increased staffing across Western Jet Foil and Manston by 86% in the last 3 months. By the end of the year we aim to have almost tripled staff numbers