Fast-track deportation centre hit by human rights challenges
HUMAN RIGHTS claims are hobbling the ability of the Home Office to deport illegal immigrants so badly that one of the Government’s “fast-track’’ centres was able to remove just 39 out of 456 inmates in its first five months.
Morton Hall, a former women’s prison in rural Lincolnshire, was reopened as an immigration removal centre last summer after a £6million refit.
The Home Office blamed the centre’s modest expulsion rate partly on legal challenges made under the Human Rights Act.
When Damian Green, the immigration minister, opened the centre in June last year, he said a “tough system of enforcement and removal is one of the cornerstones our reformed asylum system”. Fig- ures obtained from the Home Office by Priti Patel, a Conservative backbencher, last week showed that 39 out of 456 inmates had been deported directly from Morton Hall between mid-may and the end of September last year.
The Home Office also said a further 116 inmates left the centre during this period, but it was not possible to say how many of these left the country. Some may have been deported; others may have been released, granted bail or simply moved to other detention centres.
A Home Office spokesman said it is often hard to remove inmates from such centre because of actions through the courts under the Human Right Act. “Detaining and removing foreign criminals who flout the rules is vital to protecting the public and to safeguarding the economy by control- ling immigration,” he added. “It is not acceptable that foreign offenders are winning more than 60 per cent of allowed appeals to stay under the right to a family life. We will shortly be changing the immigration rules to reflect the public interest in seeing the removal from the UK of those who should be removed”.
Miss Patel, the MP for with am, in Essex, called for illegal immigrants to be ‘‘thrown out of Britain and not left to live a life of luxury at the expense of Britain’s hard-pressed taxpayers’’.
Official figures show that Morton Hall will cost taxpayers’ almost £17million this year, including £491,244 in start-up costs and more than £10million in running costs. It is one of 13 secure centres set up to hold foreign national prisoners, failed asylum seekers and migrants who overstay. The UK Border Agency’s website states inmates at the all-male centre have access to 24-hour medical services, a dentist, a “well-stocked” library with “a wide array of reading material in different languages as well as DVDS and CDS”.
They can also unwind by playing badminton, soft tennis, volleyball, basketball, cricket or football. There is also a gym available seven days a week, substantial gardens featuring classical statues and a salon where inmates receive hairdressing lessons. The Sunday
Telegraph has uncovered an array of cases where those facing deportation have been allowed to stay by citing their ownership of a cat or membership of a cricket team as part of a Human Rights Act application to remain.
Separately, official figures lay bare the full cost of a scheme designed to “bribe” illegal immi- grants to leave Britain. The Facilitated Return Scheme, introduced by Labour in 2006, offers illegal migrants and foreign national prisoners cash payments if they agree to leave Britain. In all, more than 20,000 have received an average payment of £1,200.
Grants of up to £5,000 were available under Labour, but the Coalition has now lowered this to £1,500. However, ministers in the have significantly expanded total spending on this scheme. Between October 2006 and March 2010, the Government spent £11.4million on this scheme. In 2010-11 it cost £13million – £2.7million of which came from the European Union.
Miss Patel said: “The public will be wondering why so much of their hard-earned taxes is being given to illegal immigrants and foreign prisoners to get them to leave Britain.’’