The Home Office is to concede to demands for a statutory inquiry into alleged assaults and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.
The move comes after the government spent a year fighting off demands in the courts for an independent figure to investigate chaos, which led to claims of violence, drug dealing and filthy conditions at the Kent camp.
It could lead to the former home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman being compelled to give evidence over the political decisions that led to overcrowded conditions in 2022.
Sources have claimed that the government was forced to drop its opposition to an inquiry after the decision not to reappoint David Neal, the borders watchdog.
He was due to contribute in advance of a judicial review hearing on 21 March but his evidence remained incomplete after he was sacked from office last month.
The decision to concede to a public inquiry is expected to raise questions over why the government has wasted public money defending a judicial review.
Lawyers for asylum seekers have demanded that the statutory inquiry must include powers to compel the production of documents, attendance of witnesses, public hearings and funded legal representation.
Manston, just outside Ramsgate, accommodates adults and children who arrive on small boats in a series of marquees.
In the autumn of 2022 the facilities were built to house 1,600 people for a maximum of 24 hours. But conditions deteriorated with up to 4,100 people held there, many for several weeks.
During that period, there was a series of serious incidents, including the death of a man who contracted diphtheria amid a mass outbreak.
Asylum seekers were living in overcrowded tented accommodation with inadequate sanitation and washing facilities, it was claimed. They had inadequate access to healthcare and there were alleged safeguarding failures over children.
There were several claims of assault and racist abuse, while others claimed that some people were handcuffed to stop them from self-harming. Many asylum seekers said they were unlawfully detained in holding room facilities and there were failings in screening and other safeguards designed to minimise the detention of people who were at risk of serious harm.
The allegations of racist abuse at Manston have been referred to in legal claims, but it is understood that details of the abuse have not been released publicly. The details are expected to be released to the inquiry.
The deteriorating conditions resulted in Home Office briefings in November 2022 claiming that Patel, the former home secretary, was to blame for pausing the process of finding hotel rooms for new arrivals by small boats.
Patel responded by saying she was considering legal action against the Home Office after the “unfounded” briefings sought to blame her for decisions made under her successor, Suella Braverman.
Lawyers for a group of asylum seekers wrote to Braverman demanding a statutory inquiry in November 2022. As a result, Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI), was asked by Braverman to investigate whether there had been a breach under the European convention on human rights.
In May 2023, asylum seekers issued judicial review proceedings with the ICIBI added as an “interested party”. However, Neal was told in September 2023 that his three-year contract would not be renewed. A judicial review hearing was due to take place on 20 March this year, but there was no successor to Neal to represent the ICIBI.
The Home Office said: “Since 2022 we have overhauled Manston and made significant improvements to key areas of the site including the processing, sleeping, catering and healthcare.
“Despite record pressure on the asylum system, we have reduced small boat crossings by more than a third and have a clear strategy to process and accommodate migrants arriving in the UK illegally.”
