Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
DPRK strongly condemnded the US strikes on Iran
Iran: Fars News Agency: A woman and her 6-year-old son were killed in an Israeli drone attack on Kermanshah Province
Iran: IRNA: Attack Wave 21 was not carried out, and the operation carried out minutes ago was from Yemen against targets in the occupied territories
Sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas
Israeli military command: We identified missiles launched from Iran
Tunis: The legitimacy created by World War II is crumbling and the future belongs to free peoples of the world
Tunis: We emphasize that the aggression against Iran should not obscure other ongoing crimes, the first of which is the war of extermination against the Palestinian people
Tunis: International legitimacy does not permit or justify aggression against Iran under any cover or title
Tunisia: Foreign Ministry: We call for an end to the aggression against our sister country, Iran, and we do not limit ourselves to condemning the Zionist and American attacks
Iran: Nur News: An Israeli aerial assault is targeting the region of Parchin, east Tehran

Immigration detention centers in UK to reopen under £399M deal

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 26 Sep 2022 20:19
4 Min Read

In a Rwanda-related move, two centers in England may imprison 1,000 male asylum seekers.

  • x
  • Protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 13 June, when a legal case was heard over halting the first Rwanda flight. Photograph: Thabo Jaiyesimi/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock.
    Protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 13 June (Thabo Jaiyesimi/Sopa Images)

In a £399 million project, the Home Office intends to build two immigration detention facilities to house 1,000 male asylum seekers.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman stressed that she will take matters regarding immigration more strictly than her predecessor, Priti Patel, amid plans to increase the use of detention.

Currently, the government runs seven immigration detention facilities, as well as a few short-term holding facilities throughout the UK. According to officials, 3,000 people can be accommodated at once. If the two additional centers are built, the number of people the Home Office may imprison will more than double.

The Campsfield House immigration removal center in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, was set to reopen in June, but information regarding the Haslar center in Gosport, Hampshire, has just recently come to light. In the six-year, £399 million contract to manage and run both centers, the ministers have issued an invitation for expressions of interest.

Read next: UK leaving migrant women in limbo, threatening their safety

According to The Guardian, the two centers' opening is especially related to holding asylum seekers prisoners before sending them to Rwanda. The government is spending £120 million on the Rwanda program, plus an additional £20 million. The actual cost of the Rwanda contract has not been disclosed by officials.

Government officials stated that the two new centers would combine renovation and new construction. Officials emphasize that the former prisons ombudsman Stephen Shaw's suggestions, who conducted two extensive and harshly critical studies of immigration detention and offered broad ideas for improvement, will be taken into account in the new contract.

Shaw referred to the Home Office's new plans as "disappointing" since they aim to reverse the declining usage of immigration detention, which costs roughly £99 per person every night.

He added, “At a projected cost of £400m, it reverses what had been a clear intention on the part of the government to reduce the use of immigration detention.”

Related News

2024 records highest number of global conflicts since WWII: The Times

M23 calls public meeting in captured DRC city as fighters advance

The plans have also been condemned by charities working to support immigration detainees.

Read next: Offshore detention survivors decry UK's Rwanda scheme

The £399 million deal was a "colossal" waste of money, according to Emma Ginn, director of the charity Medical Justice, which supports the health of people in detention. She also noted that 86% of those held in immigration removal centers were not sent back to the UK, "yet all are needlessly put at risk of harm in the process."

She added, “Immigration detention should be eliminated not increased. Ramping up immigration detention means knowingly ramping up the severe harm inflicted on vulnerable people in detention.”

A Home Office spokesperson said, “The government is tackling illegal immigration and the harm it causes by removing foreign criminals who have broken our laws and those with no right to be in the UK. Immigration detention plays a vital role in controlling our borders which the public rightly expects and decisions to detain are made on a case-by-case basis."

The spokesperson added, “The dignity and welfare of those in immigration detention is of the utmost importance and we have established policies, procedures and trained professionals in place at every immigration removal centre to safeguard individuals and support their physical and mental health.”

Rwanda deportation plan

A plan tailored by the British government to deport asylum-seekers of various nationalities to Rwanda was approved by a UK court on June 14 after the appeals court refused to block the plan criticized as inhumane.

Lawyers had been working on behalf of asylum-seekers who were informed they would be deported to Rwanda to prevent London from taking them to a third country, taking the battle to the high court after they were given the grounds to reject their injunction on Friday.

The first aircraft taking asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a contentious UK policy was canceled on June 15, dealing severe embarrassment to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration.

The number of people scheduled to board the flight had been reduced from 130 to seven, and then to none owing to a last-minute judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

  • Rwanda genocide
  • Liz Truss
  • Rwanda plan
  • United Kingdom
  • Rwanda
  • Immigration Policies

Most Read

Iran launches 9th wave of Op. True Promise 3, destroys IOF air defense

Iran launches 9th wave of Op. True Promise 3, destroys IOF air defense

  • MENA
  • 17 Jun 2025
Rescue team work at the site where a missile launched from Iran struck Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, June 16, 2025 (AP)

Wave 12 of Operation True Promise 3 launched, Sejjil deployed: IRGC

  • Politics
  • 18 Jun 2025
Israeli workers survey the site where a missile launched from Iran struck in Haifa on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP)

True Promise 3, wave 20: 40 missiles launched, Kheibar-Shekan in first

  • Politics
  • 22 Jun 2025
Iran launches missile barrage to Tel Aviv, casualties reported

True Promise 3, wave 14: Tel Aviv targeted, casualties reported

  • Politics
  • 19 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, speaks with then-Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, January 17, 2017 (AP)
Politics

Iran holds the initiative after nuclear strikes, Shamkhani says

Blood stains a religious painting inside Mar Elias Church, where a suicide bomber detonated himself in al-Dwela, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (AP)
Politics

UN, regional governments condemn Damascus church bombing

A B-2 bomber arrives at Whiteman Air Force Base Missouri, Sunday, June 22, 2025, after returning from a massive strike on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday (AP)
Politics

Israeli media: US-Israeli strike on Iran failed to end war

China UN Ambassador Fu Cong addresses the United Nations Security Council, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Politics

China slam US strikes on Iran nuclear sites

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS