HUNDREDS of people staged a protest outside Manston today to demand the closure of the “illegal and inhumane” detention centre.
Around 200 people braved the pouring rain to gather at the gates of the former RAF base in Kent, where thousands of asylum-seekers, including pregnant women and children, have been detained in harrowing conditions, with reports of outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria.
Protest organisers, the Action Against Detention and Deportation coalition, said the aim of the demo was also to send a message of solidarity to people inside.
DIANE ABBOTT warns that Shabana Mahmood’s draconian asylum proposals fuel racist scapegoating and risk demoralising Labour’s base – potentially paving the way for Farage to No 10
Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER



