The newspaper front page had alerted Arben Halili to his family’s situation (Picture: Sky News/Reuters/Metro)

A desperate Albanian man has tried to stop a coach carrying asylum seekers from leaving the Manston immigration facility.

He had discovered his relatives were being detained at the site after spotting a picture of his nephew on the front page of the Metro newspaper.

After travelling down from Oxford this afternoon, he tried to gain access to the facility to find his family.

Understood to be named Arben Halili, the man then blocked a coach as it tried to leave the site.

He could be seen pointing and saying ‘that’s my brother’.

He told a Sky News reporter he only discovered his family were being held there after seeing a photograph of his eight-year-old nephew in the Metro.

The front page picture had displayed the image of young boys sitting behind a wire fence, peeking out from beneath a tarpaulin.

Arben’s nephew has reportedly been held at Manston for three weeks.

Children have been amongst thousands of people forced to sleep at the facility equipped with no beds, no fresh air or even toilet doors that close.

Manston is designed to hold up to 1,600 people for no more than 24 hours but on Monday there were 4,000 on site. Several hundred have since been moved out.

It came as Sir Keir Starmer called for Rishi Sunak to ‘get a grip’ of the UK’s ‘broken’ asylum system.

The Labour leader said the Government should replace Suella Braverman with a ‘proper Home Secretary’ and scrap the ‘gimmick’ of trying to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

He added bookies believe the home secretary has a ‘better chance of becoming the next Tory leader than she has of processing an asylum claim in a year’.

The man pointed and told the driver ‘that’s my brother’ in the clip (Picture: Sky News)

Prime Minister Mr Sunak admitted ‘not enough’ asylum claims are being processsed and there is a ‘serious and escalating problem’ connected to migration but insisted Ms Braverman is taking ‘significant steps’ in response.

He also claimed Labour’s policy on reducing migration is a ‘blank page’.
Around 40,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, with Ms Braverman describing the situation on the south coast of England as an ‘invasion’ while also noting the ‘system is broken’.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said ‘She did get one thing right – she finally admitted the Tories have broken the asylum system. Criminal gangs running amok, thousands crossing the Channel in small boats every week, hardly any claims processed.’

Last year, just 14,000 initial asylum decisions were made, half the level of six years ago. It is now taking over 450 days to get a single asylum claim processed.

Metro’s front page showed children looking through the mesh fence of a migrant facility in Kent

Almost 72% of asylum claims were granted 2021, substantially higher than most of the previous decade where about a third of initial decisions were grants.

Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania, made an outspoken attack on Ms Braverman, calling for her to stop ‘discriminating’ against Albanians to ‘excuse policy failures’.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Rama called for ‘mutual respect’ as he struck out at the ‘insane’ and ‘easy rhetoric’ of targeting his citizens for the UK’s border failures.

The under-fire Home Secretary has frequently singled out Albanian asylum seekers after their numbers crossing the Channel in small boats spiralled.

Mr Rama argued that 70% of the 140,000 Albanians who have moved to the UK were living in Italy and Greece and they ‘work hard and pay tax’.

He added: ‘We have a duty to fight crime at home and are doing so resolutely, as cooperating closely with others too. Ready to work closer with UK but facts are crucial.’

Currently, more than half of the Albanians who apply for asylum are granted permission to stay.

Meanwhile, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said she was ‘extremely concerned’ following the reports of children sleeping on the floor and overcrowding in the Manston processing facility in Kent.

She has written a private letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman asking how many UASC are in Manston and seeking assurances over their treatment.

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After travelling down from Oxford this afternoon, he tried to gain access to the facility to find his family.