SOAKED and shivering refugees, including children, were forced to wait for hours in the open air or in cramped containers after arriving to England in small boats, a new report has revealed.

An inspection of Tug Haven, where asylum seekers are first taken upon arrival, has found that hundreds of people were held in a facility resembling a “rubble-strewn building site.”

HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ damning report published today also found that children have been put in facilities with adult strangers, and in two cases were transferred to an adult detention centre.

When asylum seekers arrive in England after crossing the Channel in small boats, they are taken first to Tug Haven in Dover before being transferred to other short-term facilities.

HMI Prisons described the conditions at the “processing” facility as “very poor,” with new arrivals, wet and cold from their journey, left outside or kept for hours in crowded containers where social distancing is not an option.

On the day the prison watchdog visited Tug Haven in early September 200 people arrived. But the inspectors stressed that the poor conditions were not the result an increase in people arriving via the Channel crossing, but because there was simply “inadequate provision.”

Between June and August 2020, about 2,500 people were received at Tug Haven, and more than 7,400 people have arrived in Britain in small boats this year, according to analysis by PA Media.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke said that it was “hard to understand” failures by the Home Office to prepare for the situation given the “predictable” rise in the number of people arriving.

“Just because numbers are unprecedented, that does not mean they are unpredictable, or cannot be planned for,” he said.

Detention Action director Bella Sankey said it was unacceptable that “wet, cold, unaccompanied children” were detained in such conditions “with adult strangers, no access to legal advice and little safeguarding, record keeping or basic health screening.”

“This report reveals the brutal reality of how refugee children are treated in Priti Patel’s Britain,” she said.

The inspectorate’s report looked at the conditions in five short-term holding facilities — Tug Haven and Kent Intake Unit (KIU) in Dover, Frontier House in Folkestone, Lunar House in Croydon and Yarl’s Wood — where Channel-crossing asylum-seekers are being held before dispersal to other accommodation.

It found that in KIU and Frontier House some detainees were held for more than two days in rooms with no sleeping facilities, showers or access to the open air.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants public affairs and campaigns officer Minnie Rahman said: “The Home Office could have easily provided newly-arrived asylum seekers with the care and safe, decent housing they need. But instead of acting with basic humanity, they've been using migrants as a political football - releasing absurd proposals about dumping asylum seekers on prison ships and islands 4000 miles away.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously. We are fully adhering to our statutory duties to ensure our facilities are decent and humane.

“We have also improved both our facilities and the way we deal with arrivals in response to the unprecedented rise in small boat crossings.

“These crossings are dangerous, illegally-facilitated and unnecessary. We are committed to fixing the asylum system, to make it fairer and firmer, compassionate to those who need help and welcoming people through safe and legal routes.”