Civil servants pushed ahead with housing hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants in a former military barracks despite warnings from public health officials that it would prove a coronavirus breeding ground, according to an inspectorate’s report.
A statement by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said the decision by Home Office employees made a “large-scale outbreak” of coronavirus at Napier Barracks in Kent, “virtually inevitable” once one person was infected.
A Home Office employee last month told MPs that 197 people — nearly half the barracks’ 400-person capacity — had tested positive for coronavirus in January and February. It is not clear whether any migrants died.
The inspectorate took the unusual step of issuing an immediate statement about conditions after a follow-up visit last week to inspect conditions at Napier, near Folkestone. It covered the decision last September to start putting migrants both in Napier and the…