Asylum seekers held at Manston have launched legal action alleging they were locked up for days in filthy, overcrowded tents where diseases spread and sexual abuse was rampant.

Almost 200 asylum seekers have submitted claims against the Home Office, saying their stay at the Manston site in Thanet after coming to the UK at Dover impacted their human rights.

Some say they were subjected to sexual assault, physical abuse, racist slurs and theft by guards, while others reportedly tried to self-harm with barbed wire.

Outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies were linked to at least one death.

The former RAF base, designed as a short-term processing site, was crammed with up to 4,000 people in late 2022 — three times its official capacity — with many forced to sleep on floors with only thin blanke

See Full Page