The Home Office spent more than £1,500 of public money painting over cartoon murals that were meant to welcome children to a controversial asylum reception centre, it can be revealed.
A freedom of information request shows the redecoration of the walls at Manston detention camp cost £1,549.52. Colourful characters whose images adorned the walls before the redecoration included Anna from the Disney movie Frozen, and cartoon robins.
It is not known whether Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, ordered the redecoration at Manston. He ordered the removal of cartoon characters including Mickey Mouse and Baloo the bear painted on the walls at the Kent Intake Unit (KIU) at Dover, it emerged last month.
The FoI request was submitted to the Home Office by Jonathan Beck. Referring to the costs of the redecoration of reception areas at Manston, a Home Office official wrote: “I confirm that the Home Office holds the information you have requested. The cost of the redecoration came to £1,549.52.”
The Guardian revealed last month that murals had been painted over at Manston, where many children are held, ranging from babies to teenagers.
In early July, murals at Manston and at the KIU were painted over by the Ministry of Justice’s estates team.
The child-friendly images at Manston were praised in an inspection report published last month by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP).
That praise was set against multiple concerns raised in the report about the welfare of children.
Referencing the decorations, the HMI Prisons report states: “The family marquee was decorated in bright, cheerful colours.”
The report found that children were detained for “far too long” at all of the reception sites, with 232 children held for more than 96 hours, although the time limit is 24 hours.
Manston, near Ramsgate, was at the centre of a national scandal last November when violence between staff and asylum seekers broke out, and diseases such as diphtheria spread as the 1,600-capacity site overflowed with 4,000 people, some of whom had been housed there for months.
Hundreds of these asylum seekers are now suing the Home Office for unlawful detention and inhumane treatment.
The centre has been enlarged so that it can house asylum seekers for up to five days before they are dispersed around the UK.
The move comes as the government tries to find alternative accommodation for tens of thousands of asylum seekers waiting for the government to process their applications.
It was initially reported that Jenrick had said the murals at the KIU had to be removed because they were “too welcoming” but he later told MPs they were not “age appropriate” for teenage migrants.
In reply to a parliamentary question from Labour’s Stephanie Peacock, Jenrick said that “there was no financial cost” to the redecoration at KIU.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do all we can to ensure children are safe, secure and supported as we urgently seek placements with a local authority. All children receive a welfare interview, which includes questions designed to identify potential indicators of trafficking or safeguarding issues.
“Our priority is to stop the boats and disrupt the people smugglers. The government has gone further by introducing legislation which will ensure that those people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
