Deported criminals sneak back into the UK among thousands of migrants' Channel crossings
14 July 2022, 06:21 | Updated: 14 July 2022, 08:01
Criminals who were deported from the UK have managed to get back into the country by arriving among thousands of migrants who cross using small boats.
The chief inspector of prisons has revealed crooks have been kept along with women and children and safeguarding processes were not good enough to stop them "filtering out".
Charlie Taylor said a man who had previously been kicked out of the UK after being jailed for more than a year was thought to represent a "medium risk of harm".
He had joined the 14,000 migrants that have made the perilous journey across the busy shipping lanes in the Channel – and a man who had been convicted of a relatively serious offence had spent the night at a facility with migrant children and families.
"The safeguarding processes weren't good enough to make sure [criminals] weren't filtering out and making sure that people like that won't be held in the same facility as women, children and families," he said.
Giving an overview of inspections over the last year, Mr Taylor raised alarming concerns about the Home Office's "haphazard" arrangements for migrants.
"People are arriving wet, sometimes with petrol burns. People are still having to occasionally spend a night in a tent without proper bedding," he told reporters.
Families have been "crammed into facilities where some basic safeguards were not in place" and the Kent Intake Unit is like a "hospital waiting room with bright neon lights on all night".
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"I remain very concerned about the haphazard arrangements in place for those who have crossed the Channel in small boats," Mr Taylor said in his overview, raising concerns about insufficient preparation to help vulnerable people.
"Promised facilities in Dover had not materialised when we inspected in November 2021, and we found that some families were sleeping on the floor in flimsy tents with inadequate bedding or crammed into facilities where some basic safeguards were not in place."
He said he expected better from facilities that are being built at Manston airfield, near Ramsgate.
