HUNDREDS of people staged a protest outside Manston today to demand the closure of the “illegal and inhumane” detention centre.

Around 200 people braved the pouring rain to gather at the gates of the former RAF base in Kent, where thousands of asylum-seekers, including pregnant women and children, have been detained in harrowing conditions, with reports of outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria. 

Protest organisers, the Action Against Detention and Deportation coalition, said the aim of the demo was also to send a message of solidarity to people inside.