- The employees mentioned in this piece have been created from the testimonies of multiple people openDemocracy spoke with at Manston, to protect their identities.
It’s a cold night and we’re standing with our backs to the diagonal rain, hands plunged deep in pockets. We’re in the car park of a museum of war relics and memorabilia, on a disused airfield just outside Ramsgate, Kent. Across the road is the Manston ‘short-term holding facility’ for asylum seekers.
It’s 7pm and the security shift has just changed. Omar* has finished a 12-hour shift, one of six he’ll do this week. He usually lives in Birmingham, but has had to relocate to be nearer to work. He’ll be back again at 7am.
Last week, Omar was one of 400 security staff on shift. Now, there are only 50. Workers come from as far away as Glasgow, Coventry and Bristol. Home Office-contracted security agencies on site attract employees with promises of long hours. But zero-hour contracts mean shifts can be cut at a day’s notice: 80 hours of work one week can be followed by none the next.
