‘We need your help’: young girl throws note over fence at Manston

Letter in a bottle from overcrowded Kent processing centre compares facilities to prison and says sick people are held there

A note thrown over the fence by a young girl at the Manston processing centre begging for help has compared facilities to a prison and claimed that pregnant women and sick people were being held there.

Witnesses said they saw security guards at the site ushering detainees back inside when members of the press were walking by the fence. The girl was among a group of children who broke past them at the controversial Kent centre where concerns are growing over the mental health of people detained for weeks in cramped and unhygienic conditions.