By Press Association 2021
Penally Camp in Wales (ICIBI/HMIP/PA)
Home Secretary Priti Patel and her department faced repeated criticism from professionals, inspectors and campaigners over the decision to house asylum seekers in a former Army barracks.
The Home Office decided in September to use Napier Barracks in Kent and Penally Camp in Wales amid a shortfall of accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic.
This prompted concerns from campaigners and health professionals over the conditions in the former military bases, leading to petitions to shut the sites down.
Shortly after, a Covid-19 outbreak was confirmed at Napier.
Despite this, Ms Patel and immigration minister Chris Philp continued to defend the use of such sites.
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Personal statement from David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector.
I place great importance in ensuring that equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded in everything that I undertake. This includes how we work together as a team within ICIBI, the independent monitoring of the Home Office (HO) and how we engage with our stakeholders. I am committed to building a culture of inclusion by ensuring that we have a diverse and inclusive workforce, where we can all be ourselves, where it is safe to challenge constructively and where we strive for equality of opportunity for all. We live in a diverse society and how we engage with different people and cultures, influences what we do. Creating a working environment where all staff have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and where diversity is recognised and valued is of paramount importance to me. In my experience this approach makes us more productive employees, more understanding colleagues, better members of our communities an
It was a “serious error of judgment” to think that military barracks could be suitable to house asylum seekers, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has said.
Cross-party members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Immigration Detention have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel to say they “entirely agree” with these concerns aired by Independent Chief Inspector David Bolt, whom they met last month.
They branded the conditions at Napier Barracks in Kent and Penally Camp in Wales, where almost 200 people tested positive for coronavirus during an outbreak in January and February, as “utterly unacceptable”.
Both sites have been used to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers since September, despite Public Health England warning the Home Office that it was unsuitable.