No interpreters, no photos, no fingerprints - Home Office failing to make proper checks on Channel arrivals

Photos and fingerprints are not being taken for all migrants and hundreds have disappeared from hotels, writes Lizzie Dearden

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel. Picture date: Thursday July 14, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Security and vulnerability checks for migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats are being missed because of failings by the Home Office, a report has found.

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) revealed chaotic details of a “system failure” at processing sites in Kent, where asylum seekers are arrested without explanation, questioned without interpreters and made to indicate their age by pointing at cardboard signs.

The watchdog found that the government’s response had been “both ineffective and inefficient”, creating gaps in security procedures and leaving vulnerable migrants at risk.