A watchdog has called on the UK Home Office to "get a grip" on the problems at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said the government department and its contractors must speed up the processing of migrants and make "suitable provisions" so people can be moved off the site near Ramsgate in Kent as quickly as possible.
His comments came as he published the findings of an inspection, carried out at the facility in July, which warned that serious challenges remained for migrants crossing the Channel and arriving in Kent.
Some families are reported to have been sleeping on the floor at the centre and there are reports of outbreaks of disease, including cases of diphtheria, MRSA and scabies.
Mr Taylor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The Home Office and contractors need to get a grip, they need to speed up the processing of migrants, they need to make suitable provisions so people can be moved off site as quickly as possible and housed in humane and decent conditions."
This is the first time the watchdog, which examines the conditions of prisons and other detention facilities, has inspected Manston, which opened in January, and two other migrant processing centres on the south coast.
Manston, on a disused airfield site near Ramsgate, is supposed to be a short-term holding facility where immigration documents are issued and some migrants begin the asylum screening process.
They are only meant to stay for a maximum of 24 hours. While there is food, water, showers and toilets, the prisons watchdog said there are no beds or access to fresh air and exercise.
When migrants initially arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel from Calais, they are taken to sites at Western Jet Foil in Dover and Lydd Airport in Romney Marsh for health checks. The Lydd Airport site was unoccupied at the time of the inspection.
In the watchdog's findings, published today, inspectors highlighted "failings" in procedures at Manston that "undermine the resilience of the centre for dealing with increasing volumes of detainees".
But they also found the accommodation was suitable for short-term detention and noted efforts by staff to "create a calm and even welcoming atmosphere".
Manston was described as having a "good amount" of accommodation available but, at the time of the inspection, "much of it was out of use because there were not enough staff".
Further "signs of strain" included "exhausted detainees" sleeping on the floor, including some who had been waiting more than 30 hours to be processed.
Last week, another watchdog the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration David Neal said that during a visit to Manston he had met families who had been at the facility for over a month.
He told MPs the conditions he found at the centre left him "speechless".
The prisons watchdog also found:
- Victims of trafficking, people with disabilities and severe mental health problems and other vulnerable detainees were "not always assessed or recorded appropriately", with some not identified as "adults at risk".
- The inspection raised concerns over the welfare and dignity of detainees. Some were not allowed to use mobile phones to let their families know they were safe and, in parts of the site, others were "inexplicably" not allowed to close toilet doors fully.
- Translation services were not always used to make sure detainees understood what was happening.
Mr Taylor said the inspection revealed a number of "risks" about the facilities and that since then, information from "a number of credible sources", including other watchdogs, suggested the current situation had "significantly deteriorated".
As a result, he was planning a "swift return" to Manston for another inspection when he would "expect to see substantial improvements".
"In the meantime, the Home Office and its contractors need to get a grip and urgently act on the findings of this report to make sure all detainees are held in safe, decent and humane conditions," he said.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, under-pressure Home Secretary Suella Braverman has vowed to fix the UK's "broken" asylum system as she rejected calls to resign over her response to the migrant crisis.
In a combative Commons performance yesterday, Ms Braverman denied ignoring legal advice to procure more accommodation amid warnings that Manston was dangerously overcrowded.
With the Government spending £6.8m a day putting up migrants in hotels, at an average cost of £150 per person per night, she insisted she was right to order a review of the way the system was working.
But she faced criticism from some opposition MPs for inflaming the situation after she said the Government is committed to "stopping the invasion on our southern coast".
The Home Secretary said she will be visiting the facility "shortly" and will continue to "personally" oversee efforts to resolve the problems there.
