Plans have been submitted by the Home Office to create an asylum seeker intake centre in Dover .

Permission is being sought for the change of use of the former Burgess Rail welding site in Unit 5 off Channel View Road, behind the P&O Ferries headquarters.

The vacant unit could become a place for those seeking refuge in the UK to process their formal registration, but details within the application to Dover District Council are sparse.

Typically, according to the Home Office website, a person is given an appointment and the screening can take up to four hours, with some people detained afterwards.

Plans show there would be two entrances to the building.

One would be a pedestrian entrance for staff and "undetained". The second would be a vehicle entrance for "detained".

It could employ 43 full-time or the equivalent staff.

The vacant unit currently comprises of a small office and a reception room to the front right with the remainder of the space left open. It has one male and one female toilet.

The application shows the creation of a car parking spaces outside but no details are provided about alterations to either the exterior or interior of the unit.

The Home Office has been contacted for more information.

The planning application comes after a number of shortcomings in Kent's asylum seeker facilities were uncovered.

During unannounced visits by inspectors, people were found to be kept in rooms for days which had no showers, sleeping facilities or access to open air.

The new findings were published by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons and focus on Tug Haven and Kent Intake Unit in Dover, Frontier House in Folkestone, Lunar House in Croydon and Yarl’s Wood in Bedford.

After noting that between June to August this year, about 2,500 people arrived at the Dover facility before being bailed or dispersed to other detention facilities, the report adds: "While the number of arrivals had been far higher in 2020 than in previous years, the reception arrangements at Tug Haven were not fit for even small numbers."

On Tug Haven, the author says it "resembled a building site".

The report continued: "Detainees almost always arrived wet and cold, but then often had to spend hours in the open air or in cramped containers, before moving to another detention environment.

"Basic supplies, including dry clothing, ran out during the inspection and some detainees were placed on escort vehicles in wet clothes."

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