Criminals who had previously been deported out of the UK are among more than 14,000 people to arrive on small boats this year, according to a report.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said he remained “very concerned about the haphazard arrangement in place” for migrants crossing the English Channel.
Mr Taylor, who will be tasked with scrutinising conditions on Rwanda deportation flights if they go ahead, also said families were “crammed into facilities where some basic safeguards were not in place”.
He added that inspectors came across a safeguarding case where a man who had a conviction for a relatively serious offence was spending the night in the facility with children and families.
People thought to be migrants brought into to Dover, Kent,
Gareth Fuller
More than 14,000 migrants have made the crossing so far this year
Gareth Fuller
In an overview of inspections carried out over the last year, Mr Taylor said: “I remain very concerned about the haphazard arrangements in place for those who have crossed the Channel in small boats.
“Promised facilities in Dover had not materialised when we inspected in November 2021, and we found that some families were sleeping on the floor in flimsy tents with inadequate bedding or crammed into facilities where some basic safeguards were not in place.”
Mr Taylor described the condition some people are in when they are brought ashore in Kent.
He said “People are arriving wet, sometimes with petrol burns. People are still having to occasionally spend a night in a tent without proper bedding.”
While has also likened the Kent Intake Unit to a “hospital waiting room with bright neon lights on all night”.
GB News revealed that more than 14,000 migrants have made the crossing so far this year after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies.