British police on Saturday declared the recent incendiary attack on a processing center housing immigrants smuggled into the UK a “terrorist incident” and said it was largely motivated by “terrorist ideology”.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said evidence suggested “far-right motives behind the attacks,” but mental health was also a likely factor.
The 30 October incendiary attack was launched by Andrew Leek. Andrew Leek was spotted throwing incendiary bombs at a processing center in Dover, Kent. At this processing center, people smuggled across the English Channel in small boats into the UK are first detained before being transferred to other accommodation. .
A 66-year-old man was found dead at a nearby gas station minutes after the attack.
There were no other fatalities from the attack. Two of her at the processing center reported minor injuries, according to Kent Police.
After the incident, 700 people were moved to the Manston Asylum Processing Center near Ramsgate for security reasons.
and statement The CTPSE, announced Saturday, said officers had recovered evidence that the attack was “motivated by terrorist ideology”.
A specialized police unit said officers spoke with “many key witnesses” and recovered “many important items,” including a digital media device.
“Evidence from examining these items suggests that there was an extreme right-wing motive behind the attack,” the statement said.
CTPSE said it had no evidence the leaker was working with anyone else and did not believe it poses a greater threat to the general public.
Tim Jack, senior national coordinator of the counter-terrorism police, said there were “strong indications that mental health was likely a factor,” but after reviewing the evidence, said that “the suspect’s behavior was I was satisfied that it was largely driven by extremist ideology.”
“This meets the criteria for a terrorist incident,” he said.
Jack said counter-terrorism police are increasingly seeing individuals “with mental health concerns and hateful mindsets” during casework across all ideologies, and when the threshold for terrorism is crossed. He said it was a “complicated process” to assess
A hearing in Leek’s death is scheduled to begin at County Hall in Maidstone on Tuesday.
small boat crossing
The attacks come as the British government struggles to stop people from secretly traveling out of France.
Dan O’Mahony, the Home Office’s secret channel threat commander, told the Home Affairs Committee on October 26 that 38,000 people had crossed the channel in 936 small boats this year.
Among the refugees who arrived by small boat are asylum seekers who claim the British government should have stayed in France, and many others who O’Mahony said were “deliberately manipulating the system”.
Home Secretary Suela Braverman was recently criticized after an outbreak of infectious disease revealed that Manston’s processing facility was over capacity. faced strong backlash.
Since the UK’s exit from the European Union, the Dublin Regulation, which allows EU member states to return asylum seekers to the first EU member state of arrival, no longer applies to the UK. As a result, few were successful in repatriating illegal immigrants.
Efforts to sign a new bilateral agreement with France have so far been unsuccessful. The government’s attempt to put the arrival of the small boat on a one-way flight to Rwanda has also failed, as the first flight was grounded by the European Court of Human Rights.
Braverman, who joined the Home Office less than two months ago, has taken a tough stance on immigration. She vowed to do “whatever it takes” to stop the crossing, but she admitted that there are “no quick solutions” for the “chronic” problem.
Chris Summers contributed to this report.
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Lily Zhou is an Ireland-based reporter focusing on UK news. Lily said she attended the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times for the first time before she focused on the UK in 2020.