London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Suella Braverman: We have failed to control our borders

Suella Braverman: We have failed to control our borders

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has admitted the UK government has failed to control its borders, blaming migrants and people smugglers for chaos at Kent's Manston processing centre.

However, she also said the Home Office needed to improve its efficiency.

MPs heard the home secretary had been warned four times keeping migrants at Manston may be breaking the law.

Previous reports suggested Ms Braverman was told failing to provide alternative accommodation was in breach of the law.

Ms Braverman told the Home Affairs Select Committee she would not comment on leaked documents.

However, she said she was aware from September Manston had a problem.

During the committee session, Ms Braverman struggled to reply to a question from Conservative MP Tim Loughton who asked what legal routes were available to refugees who are not part of the Ukraine, Hong Kong or Afghanistan relocation schemes.

"If you are able to get to the UK, you're able to put in an application for asylum," said Ms Braverman.

Mr Loughton responded that for some refugees, illegal entry was the only way to get to the UK.

"I think the point is that there's a shortage of safe and legal routes other than for specific groups of people," he said.

Manston was designed as a holding site for a maximum of 1,600 migrants who arrive on small boats - each for a maximum of 24 hours - but at its peak there were 4,000 people there.

In October, inspectors found families who had been sleeping on mats in the marquees for weeks.

A man who became unwell while staying at the centre died in hospital on Saturday. He is believed to have crossed to the UK in a small boat earlier in November, and Home Office staff are trying to contact his family.

On Tuesday, the Home Office confirmed the site had been cleared, helped by bad weather in the English Channel causing a sustained fall in the number of crossings.


Mental toll


Delays in processing asylum claims are taking their toll on refugees' mental health.

Ubed, an Iraqi Kurd, arrived in the UK by boat 17 months ago with his wife and daughter and claimed asylum in the first few months, but has heard nothing since.


The family is living in one room in a Wakefield hostel while they wait for a Home Office response to their case.

"When I first came to the UK I was happy. I arrived and felt safe. Since that time it's got worse. My mental health and my family's mental health is degrading," Ubed told the BBC.

Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the select committee, said Ms Braverman was told on 15 and 22 September and 1 and 4 October that the Home Office did not have the power to detain migrants waiting for onward accommodation.

The committee heard that 36 people who had been held in Manston had been returned to Albania, under the government's agreement to return migrants and offenders.

This is out of 12,000 Albanians arriving in the UK this year, up from 800 last year and 50 in 2020, according to official figures.

Dan O'Mahoney, the Home Office's clandestine channel threat commander, also said there was one Albanian police officer working with officials at the Kent camp.


Efficiency drive


Tory MP Lee Anderson told Ms Braverman more asylum seekers are being housed in hotels because "the Home Office has failed to control our borders and it's not fit for purpose at the moment".

Ms Braverman said: "We have failed to control our borders, yes, and that's why the prime minister and myself are absolutely determined to fix this problem."

Earlier Ms Braverman told MPs: "I am very clear who's at fault.

"It's the people coming here illegally, people smugglers, people who are choosing to take an illegal and dangerous journey to come here for economic reasons."


The home secretary is aiming to quadruple the rate at which asylum cases are processed by staff as the government attempts to tackle the backlog in the system.

Ms Braverman told the committee that, on average, each staff member was deciding one asylum case per week at present.

The Home Office has doubled the number of asylum staff to more than 1,000 and plans to recruit another 500 decision-makers by March.

Ms Braverman said: "We want to deliver sustainable changes to reach a minimum of three decisions, per decision maker, per week by May."

The ambition is four decisions per week, she added.

Ms Braverman was also pushed by MPs on the government's policy to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda in a bid to reduce the numbers crossing the Channel.

The plan, under which the UK has paid Rwanda £140m, is currently on hold as it faces a legal challenge in the court.

The home secretary insisted she still had confidence in the scheme and believed the courts would rule it to be legal.

Matthew Rycroft, the most senior civil servant in the Home Office, said it did not yet have evidence the scheme would be value for money.

Responding to the issue of the lack of safe and legal routes into the UK, a Home Office official said the UK had offered asylum to more than 380,000 people since 2015, including those from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

The official outlined other legal routes for people from other countries.

"Our UK Resettlement, Community Sponsorship and Mandate schemes are accessible to refugees who have been assessed for resettlement by the UNHCR, and we do not seek to influence which cases are referred to us," said a statement.


Suella Braverman blames the "people smugglers" and "people coming here illegally" over Channel boats crossings.

What safe and legal routes are there to the UK?


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×