> openDemocracy understands Home Office officials demanded that David Neal reword his foreword because it was too critical, but Neal – the chief inspector of borders and immigration – refused.
> The report, which was published today after a three-month delay, said the way vulnerable migrants who crossed the Channel by small boats were being treated on arrival was “unacceptable”.
> “The Home Office’s performance in delivering an effective and efficient response to the challenge posed by the increasing volume of migrant arrivals via small boats is poor. In my judgement, this arises principally from a refusal to transition from an emergency response to what has rapidly become steady state, or business as usual,” Neal said in his foreword to the report.
Elsewhere, he condemned a government holding centre:
> : “From my service in the Royal Military Police, I have significant experience of visiting detention facilities overseas, and I have never visited a detention facility in such a poor state. If this was within my inspection remit, I would be taking action as a matter of urgency.”
> “I would expect to have a regular cadence of meetings with Ministers, including the Home Secretary; I would be surprised if I didn’t. Certainly, in the Ministry of Defence, I never had any difficulty at all with accessing senior officials or getting into Ministers’ offices”.
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> openDemocracy understands Home Office officials demanded that David Neal reword his foreword because it was too critical, but Neal – the chief inspector of borders and immigration – refused.
> The report, which was published today after a three-month delay, said the way vulnerable migrants who crossed the Channel by small boats were being treated on arrival was “unacceptable”.
> “The Home Office’s performance in delivering an effective and efficient response to the challenge posed by the increasing volume of migrant arrivals via small boats is poor. In my judgement, this arises principally from a refusal to transition from an emergency response to what has rapidly become steady state, or business as usual,” Neal said in his foreword to the report.
Elsewhere, he condemned a government holding centre:
> : “From my service in the Royal Military Police, I have significant experience of visiting detention facilities overseas, and I have never visited a detention facility in such a poor state. If this was within my inspection remit, I would be taking action as a matter of urgency.”
The report’s author looks *absolutely livid* talking about the elusive, scrutiny-averse Patel in [a recent BBC News interview](https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1550066344724516865). He has been complaining about her avoidance of him [since June](https://freemovement.org.uk/patel-wont-meet-me-immigration-inspector-complains/):
> “I would expect to have a regular cadence of meetings with Ministers, including the Home Secretary; I would be surprised if I didn’t. Certainly, in the Ministry of Defence, I never had any difficulty at all with accessing senior officials or getting into Ministers’ offices”.
Patel also disappointed a parliamentary committee set to question her [about the Home Office’s failures](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-rwanda-immigration-home-affairs-b2122049.html) on Rwanda, passport delays, violence againt women, and policing in general by simply refusing to turn up, citing only “changes in government” – i.e. the [self-destruction of the Johnson regime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_Kingdom_government_crisis) – as her excuse.
Priti Patel: **smirk**
Priti stomping her feet in frustration…