Covid outbreak ‘inevitable’ among asylum seekers at barracks, says report

Civil servants pushed ahead with housing hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants in a former military barracks despite warnings from public health officials that it would prove a coronavirus breeding ground, according to an inspectorate’s report.

A statement by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said the decision by Home Office employees made a “large-scale outbreak” of coronavirus at Napier Barracks in Kent, “virtually inevitable” once one person was infected.

A Home Office employee last month told MPs that 197 people — nearly half the barracks’ 400-person capacity — had tested positive for coronavirus in January and February. It is not clear whether any migrants died.

The inspectorate took the unusual step of issuing an immediate statement about conditions after a follow-up visit last week to inspect conditions at Napier, near Folkestone. It covered the decision last September to start putting migrants both in Napier and the smaller Penally Barracks, in south-west Wales. No figures have been given for coronavirus infections at Penally.

Given the cramped communal conditions and unworkable cohorting at Napier, once one person was infected a large-scale outbreak was virtually inevitable

At the height of the use of Napier, migrants were housed up to 28 to a dormitory, with only thin sheets and other inadequate screening between them and other occupants. Use of the barracks marked a departure from the normal practice of housing asylum seekers in flats or other forms of normal residential accommodation while their claims were processed.

The barracks’ use — which ministers justified as an emergency step during the coronavirus pandemic — was widely interpreted as part of ministers’ efforts to deter Channel crossings by migrants in small boats. Many of the small boat arrivals were placed in the camps.

The inspectorate said that in September and October last year Public Health England had advised the Home Office that multi-occupancy, dormitory-style accommodation at Napier was “not supported by current guidance”.

“Both they and Public Health Wales expressed concerns about the Covid safety of the accommodation,” the inspectorate wrote. “Both sites were opened before Public Health Wales and Public Health England recommendations had been actioned.”

Public Health England also warned of the need to establish effective “cohorting” arrangements — to separate new arrivals from longer-standing residents — if the barracks were used. However, the inspectorate’s report calls the cohorting arrangements at Napier “unworkable”.

“Given the cramped communal conditions and unworkable cohorting at Napier, once one person was infected a large-scale outbreak was virtually inevitable,” the inspectorate wrote.

The report was scathing about the “resources, skills and assurance systems” deployed both by the Home Office and its private contractors at the two sites, calling them “inadequate”. Napier is managed for the Home Office by Clearsprings Ready Homes, part of the Clearsprings Group.

“There were fundamental failures of leadership and planning by the Home Office,” the inspectorate wrote.

The report noted that, by mid-February, the numbers of migrants at Napier had been reduced to 62 from almost 400 in mid-January, while the number at Penally had fallen to roughly 80, from double that at the peak.

The Home Office said it had met its statutory duty to the asylum seekers by providing them with “suitable accommodation and three meals a day all paid for by the British taxpayer”.

However, the department added, of Napier: “We expect the highest possible standards from our service providers and have instructed them to make improvements at the site.”