UK Illegal Immigrants Processing Centre Attacked With Incendiary Devices

Members of the U.K. military and Border Force extinguish a blaze from a firebomb, targeting a Border Force center in Dover, England, on Oct. 30, 2022. Peter Nicholls/Reuters

A UK Home Office facility housing illegal immigrants has been attacked with incendiary devices, police reported.

According to Kent Police, officers were called to The Viaduct, Dover, at 11.22 a.m. on Oct. 30, where two to three incendiary devices had caused a fire.

One minor injury was reported and the suspect has been identified and located, police said.

According to a Reuters photographer who was at the scene, the attacker threw three petrol bombs at the facility, one of which failed to go off.

He then drove to a nearby petrol station, tied an improvised noose around his neck, attached it to a metal pole, and drove off, killing himself, the photographer said.

Nathalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, also said the attacker had committed suicide.

But police were unable to confirm reports that the suspect had died and said inquiries were ongoing.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident at Western Jet Foil, Dover, and police are in attendance. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.”

Tensions ‘Running High’

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick called it a “serious incident,” adding he is being kept updated on the situation by the police.

Elphicke, the local MP, said she was “deeply shocked.”

She told LBC radio that the processing centre is “a well-known facility” where illegal immigrants are taken to after they cross the English Channel in small boats.

Elphicke said “tensions have been running high” over immigration and she had raised her concerns with the immigration minister earlier this week.

She mentioned a case a week ago when illegal immigrants who had arrived on the Dover beach entered a house nearby, with someone “eventually apprehended in a woman’s bedroom.”

Continuing Crisis

Nearly 40,000 illegal immigrants have arrived in the UK in small boats so far this year, provisional figures show.

The number of illegal crossings has soared in recent years, with 28,526 people detected in 2021, compared to 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019, and 299 in 2018, according to figures from the Home Office.

A total of 990 illegal immigrants arrived in Dover after crossing the Channel on Oct. 29, government figures show.

It is the highest number of arrivals in one day for a number of weeks, with more crossings taking place on Sunday morning.

The highest number of illegal crossings in a single day was set on Aug. 22, when 1,295 people arrived in the country.

PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.