Hundreds of people have staged a demonstration outside Manston detention centre demanding the facility's closure.

It comes after Downing Street said this week it moved more than 1,000 people from the processing centre near Ramsgate, amid reports of a diphtheria outbreak.

Today a further demonstration took place to urge the government "shut it down".

Activists from the campaign groups Stand Up to Racism and Freedom from Torture braced the rain this afternoon to protest at the site for a second time in less than a week.

People in the umbrella-clad crowd chanted “shut Manston down” and unfurled a banner reading: “The enemy doesn’t arrive by boat, he arrives by limousine”.

Several people raised placards reading “no-one is illegal”, “refugees welcome” and “Braverman out now”.

During the demo children and families shut inside the centre were seen smiling and waving through the windows before being moved away by security.

It comes amid concerns over the conditions at the site where around 4,000 people are being detained while their asylum application is processed.

Local resident Norman Thomas, who attended the protest, said: “The Manston migrant processing centre is unhealthy, inhumanity and illegal and has all the features of a concentration camp.

"It was supposed to be used to process asylum seekers and instead has been used to detain them in the most atrocious conditions. It must be closed down — and closed down now.”

Norman added: “The Home Secretary and the media are using dog-whistle language to speak about the asylum seekers, talking about a ‘war’ and treating them as enemy invaders."

Labour ward councillor Aram Rawf, who came to Britain as a child asylum seeker, spoke at the demonstration.

Cllr Rawf said: “No one should be taken in by what’s happening here. The government is simply using asylum-seekers as scapegoats for the effects of years of cuts and austerity.

"What the government needs to do is provide a safe route for asylum seekers to come to this country.”

Ministers are under ramped up pressure to deal with the small boats crisis following the disclosure of dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the processing centre in Manston.

In the last few days violence has flared up at the asylum centre where detainees sleep on tent floors in filthy conditions without bedding, it has been claimed.

According to the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union "at least one incident of sexual violence” has occurred.

It follows damning reports asylum seekers were abandoned at London’s Victoria Station on Tuesday night.

Eleven men were bussed to the capital as part of a larger group and left confused and scantily clad, with one spending the night sleeping rough on city streets.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, MP Alistair Carmichael called for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to answer for the incident.

On Friday the home secretary took a trip on-board a Chinook helicopter as she travelled 19 miles between Dover and Manston.

The high-grade military helicopter, which can reach speeds of 187mph, was spotted in the skies above east Kent.

Number 10 has since defended its decision to use the helicopter - which experts for the UK Defence Journal say costs about £3,500 per hour to fly.

Today cabinet minister Oliver Dowden told the Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday show: "It is unacceptable that we now have a situation with almost 40,000 people crossing the Channel."

Mr Dowden said there were "about 1,800" people within the centre.

He added the the government was "continuing to make good progress" but admitted it was still over capacity.

Some asylum seekers described the conditions inside as being like “a prison” and begged for help.

On Wednesday, a young girl threw a bottle containing a letter, which said there were pregnant women and sick detainees inside the centre, over the perimeter fence to a PA news agency photographer.