Shipping containers had been put aside for critically ailing baby migrants, it has emerged.
England’s youngsters’s commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, described the measure as “truly shocking and completely unsuitable for any child.” The isolation items in Kent had been earmarked for kids with diphtheria, the Sunday Times stories.
These embrace a delivery container of about two metres by 1.5metres with no home windows or bathroom, it’s reported. It comes after two youngsters had been discovered to have diphtheria, a contagious bacterial situation that requires folks to be remoted, in latest months.
After her workforce inspected the location final week, Dame Rachel stated: “The isolation areas we saw on this visit are truly shocking and completely unsuitable for any child and my own research shows more than 10% of those arriving between 2021 and 2023 noted to have particular ‘vulnerabilities’ were suffering from an infectious illness.
“I’ve repeatedly warned about the necessity to spend money on extra acceptable lodging for kids arriving on this nation as a result of, with out this, we’re in peril of repeating the issues of the previous.”
Children are taken for processing at the Western Jet Foil reception centre in Dover before being taken to a holding facility nearby. Here they await placement by Kent County Council.
Sources told the Sunday Times that a shipping container was considered for child migrants, before alternative accommodation was found. The Home Office insists the units were never intended as accommodation. A spokesman said: “The safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our utmost priority and providing care placements for them is a national issue that requires participation from local authorities across the UK.
“There are isolation facilities at Western Jet Foil used to temporarily place those with suspected communicable diseases until suitable onward accommodation is secured. These have never been proposed, or used, as accommodation for small boat arrivals.
“We are continuing to work with local authorities across the UK, including Kent County Council, to support them to fulfil their statutory duties to accommodate unaccompanied children nationwide.”