曼斯顿收容和处理中心位于英格兰东南部拉姆斯盖特附近的一处前军事基地内。
The Manston arrivals and processing centre at a former military base near Ramsgate, south east England.
照片：Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images根据周五举行的独立调查，该机构指出：“英国政府高层显然在相关决策中起到了关键作用”——这些决策导致小型船只上的难民无法被及时转移至酒店，从而引发了严重的过度拥挤现象。调查报告列举了诸多问题，包括种族歧视、使用武力以及收容设施内的长期过度拥挤状况。
Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images KC says Number 10 ‘clearly did play a decisionmaking role’ in pausing sending small boat arrivals on to hotels which led to terrible overcrowding A catalogue of failures including racism, use of force and chronic overcrowding at a Home Office processing site for small boat arrivals were linked to decisions made at the highest level of government, an independent inquiry heard on Friday.
这项独立调查由现任政府委托进行，旨在调查2022年6月1日至11月22日期间前政府在该机构（位于肯特郡）管理期间所存在的问题。目前，近200名被关押在曼斯顿的寻求庇护者参与了调查；参与调查的还包括前内政大臣苏埃拉·布拉弗曼（Suela Braverman）和普里蒂·帕特尔（Priti Patel），以及多个政府部门（如内政部、财政部、司法部和国防部），还有英国监狱监察局（HM Inspectorate of Prisons）和英国卫生安全局（UK Health Security Agency）。
The Manston independent inquiry was commissioned by the current government to look at multiple problems under the previous government between 1 June and 22 November 2022 at the facility in Kent, where small boat arrivals are processed. Almost 200 asylum seekers detained at Manston are participating in the inquiry along with the previous home secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, several government departments including the Home Office, Treasury, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence, along with HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the UK Health Security Agency.
问题的根源在于该收容设施的过度拥挤。曼斯顿的设计初衷是最多只能容纳1,600名新抵达的难民，并且这些难民只能被关押24小时以内，因为该设施缺乏适当的睡眠设施和其他基本生活条件。然而，在政府决定暂停将许多难民转移至酒店等其他住宿场所后，该设施的拥挤状况变得极其危险。在危机最严重的时候，有多达4,000名难民被非法关押在那里，其中大多数人不得不在肮脏、不卫生的环境中睡在地板上。
The problems began when the site became vastly overcrowded. Manston was designed to hold a maximum of 1,600 new arrivals for no more than 24 hours as there are no proper sleeping or other facilities there. But after decisions by ministers to pause transfers of many of the asylum seekers to other accommodation such as hotels the site became dangerously overcrowded. Up to 4,000 people were accommodated there unlawfully for several weeks at the peak of the crisis, most of them sleeping on the floor in profoundly insanitary conditions.
调查中发现了一系列严重问题：包括疥疮和白喉等传染病的爆发（在未接种疫苗的人群中，白喉的致死率可高达30%）；有报道称看守人员实施了暴力行为或滥用药物；看守人员还存在种族歧视行为；此外，还有一名难民因感染白喉而死亡。
There were outbreaks of infectious conditions including scabies and diphtheria, which can be fatal in approximately 30% of cases in unvaccinated populations; reports of assaults and drug use by guards; racist abuse from guards, and the death of a man after contracting diphtheria.
由索菲·卡特赖特（Sophie Cartwright KC）主持的调查显示，两位前首相——鲍里斯·约翰逊（Boris Johnson）和里希·苏纳克（Rishi Sunak）——都在2022年的不同时间担任过首相职务，他们都参与了关于曼斯顿（Manston）收容所相关决策的制定。
The inquiry, chaired by Sophie Cartwright KC, heard that two former prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, who were both in post at different points in 2022, were involved in decisionmaking about the Manston site.
代表部分当事人的劳拉·杜宾斯基（Laura Dubinsky KC）向调查组表示，暂停将寻求庇护者送往酒店的决定与英国首相官邸（Number 10）的决策方针是一致的。她指出：“首相官邸显然在决策过程中发挥了重要作用。”帕特尔（Patel）向调查组提供了证据，证明用于解决小型船只运输问题的资金严重不足，包括用于曼斯顿收容所及后续安置工作的资金。
Laura Dubinsky KC, representing some of the participants, told the inquiry that the decision to pause sending many asylum seekers on to hotels was in line with the thinking at Number 10. “Number 10 clearly did play a decisionmaking role,” she said. Patel has provided evidence to the inquiry that funding was deemed inadequate to address the small boats issue, including funding for Manston and onward accommodation. The inquiry heard that events in Manston “raise very serious questions for ministers”.
调查组认为，曼斯顿收容所发生的事件“对相关官员提出了非常严肃的质疑”。
Clair Dobbin KC, counsel to the inquiry, said it was taking place in a “crucible of hostility” at a time when the arrival of small boats remains a significant issue.
调查组的法律顾问克莱尔·多宾（Clair Dobbin KC）表示，此次调查是在充满敌意的氛围中进行的；同时，小型船只的持续抵达仍然是一个亟待解决的问题。她直言：“调查组将探讨在某些情况下，曼斯顿收容所的运作是否违反了法律。”
She added that “to put it bluntly” the inquiry will look at whether at certain points “the entire operation at Manston was outside the law”.
一位内政部高级官员在报告中写道：“坦率地说，我实在找不到合适的词语来形容那里的状况”——他形容那里是“我工作过的环境中最糟糕的地方”。
One senior Home Office official wrote a report saying: “to be frank I’m struggling for words” after observing what he said were “the worst conditions I have observed working in this environment”.
31岁的侯赛因·哈西卜·艾哈迈德（Hussein Haseeb Ahmed）是通过小型船只抵达英国的，后来因患白喉在医院去世。他直到病情严重时才被送医治疗，且在临终前一直被戴着手铐；直到去世前两个半小时，手铐才被取下。调查组指出，有关他死亡情况的证据表明，当时存在一系列处理不当的情况。
Hussein Haseeb Ahmed, 31, was taken to Manston after arriving in a small boat. He died in hospital after becoming ill with diphtheria He was belatedly admitted for care and was kept in handcuffs as he lay dying. The handcuffs were only removed two and a half hours before he died. According to the inquiry, evidence about his death suggests “a succession of missed opportunities”.
调查组还发现，一些工作人员对被拘留者使用了极具种族歧视性的言语。
The inquiry also heard that “very racist language was used towards detainees by some staff”.
有60个家庭被挤在11间房间里，这些房间没有热水、淋浴设施，也没有干净的衣物可供使用；81个人共用一个厕所，且没有任何肥皂或消毒用品。有些人用牙膏来缓解伤口的疼痛，还有人用羊角面包的包装纸来处理伤口。
Sixty families were crammed into 11 rooms in a barracks building with no hot water, showers or clean clothes for nine days with one toilet for 81 people, and no soap or sanitiser available. Some used toothpaste to soothe bites and one used a croissant wrapper to dress wounds.
有人质疑，在曼斯顿（Manston）是否有未经审查的员工在从事相关工作，而这些员工的雇佣行为是否合法。
Questions were raised about whether some unvetted staff were working legally at Manston.
代表调查参与者的律师之一舒信禄（Shu Shin Luh）表示：“为什么这些人被当作‘低等人’来对待？”同样代表部分调查参与者的斯蒂芬妮·哈里森（Stephanie Harrison）则指责内政部主导了一种“以逍遥法外为特征、普遍存在违法行为且严重违反法律规定的制度文化”。调查听证会的具体日期尚未确定。
Shu Shin Luh, one of the lawyers representing participants in the inquiry, said: “Why were people treated as less than human?” Stephanie Harrison, also representing some of the participants in the inquiry, accused the Home Office of presiding over “an institutional culture defined by impunity with widespread illegality and non-compliance with the law”. Future dates for inquiry hearings have not yet been confirmed.