UK immigration detention centre 'put on hold'
June 24 2010 by Niall J Rice
Plans shelved by Green
Plans to build a new UK immigration centre have fallen victim to the budget cuts announced by the Coalition government this week.
The detention centre, which would have been situated in the Oxfordshire town of Arncott, near Bicester, have officially been dropped by the government - the UK immigration minister Damian Green said today.
The proposed plan, by the previous Labour government, was to build a detention centre that would be very similar to a category C prison and house up to 800 failed asylum seekers. The plans lodged in 2008 was said to be crucial in re-structuring the immigration system in which asylum seekers are dealt with after failing in an application.
In a letter to the MP for North Oxfordshire, Tony Bauldry, Damian Green outlined the present situation of budget cuts across the public sector.
“I appreciate that delays in making a decision are unsettling for local residents but the construction of the centre is currently unaffordable under current plans.” He said.
The new centre was reported to be generating 500 new jobs for the area, in a time when the town is experiencing the same record unemployment rate as the rest of the country.
Although Green did not rule out commencing the proposed project, the MP for North Oxfordshire was philosophical about the hopes of the centre being built.
"If the Home Office haven't got the money to build a new immigration removal centre at Arncott now, it is very difficult to see - given the country's present financial circumstances - when at any time in the foreseeable future they are ever going to have the money to build a detention centre at Arncott."
Currently those asylum seekers waiting for a decision on whether they will be granted a UK visa are often temporarily put into emergency housing, such as the Red Road flats in Glasgow.
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