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A total of 29 staff have been sacked after positive drug tests at the Manston migrant processing centre – a sixfold increase in the space of a year, the Guardian has learned.
Thousands of asylum seekers who arrive in the UK after crossing the Channel on dinghies are processed at the site near Ramsgate in Kent by Home Office officials and contractors. Many of the new arrivals are vulnerable and arrive in the UK traumatised.
New Home Office freedom of information data obtained by the Guardian reveals that, in 2024, 29 staff were sacked after testing positive for drugs including cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and non-prescription Tramadol compared with figures from 2023, which the Home Office said involved five or fewer drugs sackings.
According to the FoI data, more than 2,000 Home Office staff, contractors and sub-contractors are on the site in the space of a year, but it is not known how many of that number are detention custody officers who are directly in charge of the new arrivals. There are likely to be a few hundred staff on site during any given shift.
Workers on the Manston site who test positive for illegal drugs are suspended while a disciplinary investigation is held. Those who have tested positive for drugs have an opportunity to lodge an appeal and to obtain independent analysis of the sample taken for the drug test.
Home Office sources said random and intelligence-led drug testing was conducted to protect the vulnerable people being processed on the site and that positive tests lead to dismissal and withdrawal of accreditation as detention custody officers.
Andy Baxter, the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, the trade union that represents staff at Manston, said: “The POA can never condone drug-taking in the workplace. However, we would urge the employer to offer suitable occupational support to people found to be using drugs.”
This is not the first time Manston, a short-term detention facility, has been hit by a drugs controversy.
In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that some guards were removed from Manston after complaints about drugs. Asylum seekers complained that some staff tried to sell them drugs while staff complained some of their colleagues were using drugs while on duty.
At the time, the Home Office said: “The individuals involved in this incident were swiftly removed from the site and we will continue to take robust action against those whose behaviour falls beneath those high standards.”
However, according to the new FoI data nobody working at Manston was sacked for drug use in 2022.
Manston has been the subject of many controversies including severe overcrowding in the second half of 2022 when the site, designed to hold a maximum of 1,600 asylum seekers, accommodated more than 4,000 in filthy conditions. There were mass outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies and one man died after becoming infected with diphtheria. An independent inquiry into events at Manston during that period has started its work.
Emma Ginn, the director of the charity Medical Justice, which works to support people in immigration detention, said: “Medical Justice is alarmed by the apparent high rate of illicit drug use by staff responsible for the safety and wellbeing of people who, having been detained after a perilous journey to the UK, are in a vulnerable situation and need sensitive care.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to illegal drug use found on testing. By introducing more robust procedures and increasing testing, we are demonstrating our commitment to ensuring the care of those transiting through Manston is maintained.”
In a separate development, last month Home Office sources confirmed that a man had attempted to take his life on the site. Such attempts are unusual because new arrivals generally move through the site in a matter of hours.
A Home Office spokesperson said in connection with this incident: “Our duty of care towards people detained at Manston and across our entire immigration estate is of the utmost importance.”
