UK Migrant Centre in Crisis as Staff Scramble to Cope with Surge in Channel Crossings

Staff at one of the UK’s main migrant centres have been pushed to breaking point after more than 1,000 people crossed the Channel in a single day, the highest number recorded this year. With pressure mounting fast, workers at the Manston processing centre in Kent were asked to put in extra hours over the weekend as the facility struggled to keep up.

The urgent appeal was made on Saturday evening by Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the Home Office contractor running the site. The message to staff warned of low numbers on duty and urged them to take on overtime shifts to cope with the influx, reported the Express.

The Home Office confirmed that 1,194 people arrived in 18 small boats in one day, bringing the provisional total for 2025 to 14,811. That figure already marks a jump of more than 30% compared to this time last year. The number is also the highest for the first five months of any year since small boat crossings began back in 2018.

It’s worth remembering that the highest ever daily total was 1,305 on 3 September 2022, just as Boris Johnson was heading out the door as Prime Minister. This weekend’s figure has brought fresh scrutiny on how prepared the system really is to deal with such surges.

According to The Guardian, staffing issues at Manston aren’t new, with night shifts especially hard to cover. A source reportedly described ongoing concerns about a lack of personnel when big groups arrive all at once.

Manston itself is supposed to be a short-term holding site, designed to process around 1,000 people for up to 24 hours. But the reality has looked very different. The site, which sits on a former RAF base, has previously held more than 4,000 people at once, and in some cases, for as long as 33 days.

Labour’s John Healey spoke on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, saying: “Truth is, Britain’s lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration.”

Government ministers, however, are pointing the finger at the weather. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said recent calm conditions had led to more so-called “red days” – periods where the sea is flat enough for boats to make the crossing more safely.

Reporting from Dover, the BBC’s Simon Jones backed that up, saying: “I think it was largely down to the weather, because we saw a week when it was really windy so no crossings at all and that’s when people are gathering over in Calais waiting for the weather to change. On Saturday it was really calm out there in the Channel, that’s why we saw so many people make a crossing.”

It’s clear the system is being stretched again, and with summer approaching, many fear this could just be the beginning.

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