Category Archives: Kent

Channel rescue: four people confirmed dead after small boat capsizes trying to cross from France – latest updates

Posted on by

Major search and rescue operation continues after HM Coastguard received reports of an incident at 3.40am on Wednesday

At least three people have died and 43 people have been rescued after trying to cross the Channel in freezing conditions overnight, according to reports.

A member of a rescue team confirmed to Sky News that at least three people have died, as a major search and rescue operation continues off the coast of Kent. “Many” were rescued from the water, according to BBC reporter, Simon Jones, adding a small number are confirmed dead.

Continue reading...

Manston asylum centre now empty after weeks of controversy

Posted on by

Apparent vacating of Home Office site follows series of concerns including over outbreak of diphtheria

Manston asylum centre, the troubled Home Office site in Kent where people arriving in the UK in small boats are taken for initial checks, is understood to be completely empty, the Guardian has learned.

Just a few weeks ago about 4,000 arrivals were placed there by the Home Office, almost three times the maximum 1,600 capacity of the tented site in Ramsgate.

Continue reading...

‘We were left by the road’: asylum seekers stranded in London describe experience

Posted on by

Two Afghans tell of how they were taken from Manston centre and left without accommodation or money

People taken from Manston immigration holding centre have described their dismay at being deposited late at night in central London, without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money.

Amid growing controversy over the circumstances in which large numbers of people were bussed out of the acutely overcrowded camp, the Home Office has insisted that it only released asylum seekers who told staff that they had family or friends they could stay with.

Continue reading...

Home Office removing asylum seekers from Manston as fears rise for their health

Posted on by

Young girl in overcrowded Kent processing centre throws note over fence pleading for help and comparing facilities to prison

The Home Office is removing 600 people every day from a controversial processing centre in Kent amid growing concerns over the mental health of people detained for weeks in cramped and unhygienic conditions.

After an outcry at the treatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, the local MP, Roger Gale, has been told by ministers that the total number held within the facility will be cut from 4,100 on Monday to 1,500 by the weekend.

Continue reading...

Hundreds moved from Manston migrant centre amid overcrowding

Posted on by

Immigration minister says number of people at Kent processing centre has fallen substantially

• UK politics live – latest news updates

Hundreds of migrants have been moved out of an immigration centre in Kent amid concerns it had become dangerously overcrowded.

The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said the number of people at the Manston migrant processing centre had fallen substantially on Tuesday, with more expected to be moved on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

EU biometric entry system could multiply delays at Dover

Posted on by

Additional requirements would be time-consuming and threaten capacity, Dover port boss says

Post-Brexit Channel border delays could multiply from next May, with a five-person vehicle being held for up to 10 minutes if the EU goes ahead with a planned biometric entry system, the Port of Dover has said.

The entry-exit system (EES), which is due to start in May 2023, will require all non-EU nationals to register their fingerprints and be photographed before entering the bloc.

Continue reading...

Rare orchid flourishes in Charles Darwin’s gardens after two-year project

Posted on by

Unusually the violet helleborine is only pollinated by wasps and is thriving thanks to nectar that is irresistible to the insects

A rare orchid that reproduces by getting wasps drunk is thriving in the gardens of Charles Darwin’s house after a two-year restoration programme.

The violet helleborine is entirely pollinated by wasps, which are usually not perceived to be the best pollinators. They’re regimented and meticulously clean themselves, scientists say, which makes the process of pollination a fairly futile prospect – there’s nothing for the pollen to cling to.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

Posted on by

As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

Continue reading...

‘My family need my support to eat’: how Indonesians came to work on a Kent farm

Posted on by

Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew

Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.

He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.

Continue reading...

Dover ferry passengers advised to arrive early amid fears of summer-long disruption

Posted on by

Cross-Channel ferry passengers told to arrive in good time for border checks after weekend of delays

Cross-Channel ferry passengers were being told to arrive in good time at Dover as queues built at the Port of Dover amid fears the severe disruption of recent days could return to Kent throughout the summer.

The ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were queues of about an hour for French border checks on Monday morning and to “allow a minimum of 120 minutes before your departure to complete all controls”.

Continue reading...

France rejects blame for Dover gridlock, saying it is ‘not responsible for Brexit’

Posted on by

Travellers told to allow three to four hours to pass through security and French border checks at port

French authorities have hit back at claims by the Port of Dover that French border control staff were to blame for a second day of hours-long delays, saying: “France is not responsible for Brexit.”

It came after the port blamed delays on insufficient border staff at police aux frontières.

Continue reading...

France says it is ‘not responsible for Brexit’ amid row over Dover travel chaos – as it happened

Posted on by

French transport minister hits back at Liz Truss’s suggestion that France needed to fix the ‘avoidable and unacceptable’ situation

Authorities in Kent have declared a “major incident” due to traffic jams in and around Dover, with officials saying the disruption could be worse than on Friday.

There are currently 3,000 lorries parked on the M20 and traffic is building at the port.

We are operating in a post-Brexit environment which does mean that passports need to be checked, they need to be stamped and indeed the capable people that do man the booths – police aux frontieres – they’re doing their job that they need to do now.

Continue reading...

A greener greenhouse: solar panels trialled on Wimbledon berries farm

Posted on by

Energy crisis has made Kent scheme aimed at unobtrusively building up solar output more timely

Tennis fans tucking into strawberries at Wimbledon this month may find their fruit has an unusual origin – a solar-powered greenhouse.

Transparent panels have been attached to the sides of glasshouses in Kent as part of a trial to build up solar power supplies without using more land.

Continue reading...

Johnny Depp spotted holding badger cub at Kent wildlife sanctuary

Posted on by

Fresh from US defamation case win against Amber Heard, actor has been playing UK gigs with Jeff Beck

On the latest stop of his UK tour, days after winning a multimillion-dollar defamation trial against Amber Heard, Johnny Depp was spotted holding a badger cub in Kent.

“Guess who’s been to see us,” Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, which received thousands of likes. “That’s the real Johnny Depp!”

Continue reading...

‘It is soul-destroying’: lorry drivers face hours stuck in queues at Dover

Posted on by

Emergency traffic controls triggered 20 times this year as extra Brexit controls and freight volumes cause logjams

His lorry loaded with British Airways aircraft parts, Ivo Hradilik was expecting to drive onto a ferry headed to Calais, before delivering his cargo to the outskirts of Paris.

But there’s a problem with the customs paperwork, and the 26-year-old HGV driver from the Czech Republic will have to park up near the Port of Dover while the haulage company sorts everything out.

Continue reading...

Kebabs ’n’ jabs: the Punjabi grill in Gravesend offering a side of Covid shots

Posted on by

Kentish pharmacist-restauranteurs Rav and Raj Chopra joined the NHS vaccine rollout after their father’s hospitalisation

When customers walk through the doors of V’s Punjabi Grill, a family-run restaurant in Gravesend in Kent, the sign above their heads says in gold-letters: cocktails, grills, events.

Now, the family may need to paint a fourth bullet point: vaccinations.

Continue reading...

Desmond Tutu’s funeral and Kazakhstan clashes: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

Posted on by

A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Hong Kong

Continue reading...

Tributes paid to paramedic Alice Clark, 21, who died in ambulance crash

Posted on by

Two other paramedics suffered serious injuries in collision with a cement lorry near Tonbridge, Kent

Tributes have been paid to a 21-year-old paramedic who died after her ambulance was involved in a crash with a cement lorry in Kent.

Alice Clark’s parents praised her as a “beautiful, kind, fun-loving daughter” who will be missed “more than words can say” while a colleague described her as “kind and dedicated”.

Continue reading...

Inquests to be held into deaths of new mothers who died from herpes

Posted on by

Coroner will investigate if Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, contracted virus from surgeon during C-sections

A coroner will investigate the deaths of two women from herpes following childbirth, amid fears they contracted the virus from their surgeon.

Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, died weeks apart after their babies were delivered by caesarean section at different hospitals in Kent.

Continue reading...

‘Shocking’ that UK is moving child refugees into hotels

Posted on by

Children’s Society criticises practice of placing unaccompanied minors in hotels with limited care

Record numbers of unaccompanied child asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on small boats are being accommodated in four hotels along England’s south coast, a situation that the Children’s Society has described as “shocking”.

About 250 unaccompanied children who arrived in small boats are thought to be accommodated in hotels, which Ofsted said was an unacceptable practice.

Continue reading...