UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman calls migrants seeking asylum an 'invasion'

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has come under fire for her derogatory remarks on migrants. She described migrants risking their lives to seek asylum in the UK as an "invasion on our southern coast."

She made the remarks while defending the living conditions at a processing centre for new arrivals. She said that "illegal immigration is out of control," while mocking people fleeing wars and persecution.

Braverman's comments came just a day after a firebomb attack at an immigration centre in Dover, Kent.

"Let's stop pretending they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows that is not true," she added. Braverman has been accused of keeping migrants at the processing center in Kent for a longer period.

New arrivals at such centers are expected to spend 24 hours before moving on to longer-term accommodation, but several reports have claimed that people are being kept there for weeks. And that they have been forced to sleep in tents.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the conditions at an immigration centre in Kent as inhumane.

"There are confirmed diphtheria outbreaks, reports of scabies and MRSA outbreaks and reports of violence. The Prime Minister ­promised his would be a government of integrity, professionalism and accountability," she added.

Her deputy, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has distanced himself from her controversial and insensitive remarks.

"In a job like mine you have to choose your words very carefully," he told Sky News. "And I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life." Meanwhile, Braverman has rejected all reports claiming that she had been keeping migrants in processing centres for too long.

This is not the first time that Braverman has courted controversy. She was forced to resign by former PM Liz Truss for sending a government document from her personal email to an employee of a member of parliament, per The Mirror.