In The Press

Villagers are concerned about a proposed immigration facility in North Yorkshire they suspect is to be secretly used as a detention centre, the Observer has reported. Residents believe that despite only being billed as a ‘reception area’ the Home Office is planning to detain some of the 1,500 asylum seekers it intends to house there for longer than officially stated. An official government fact sheet dated 14 April offers no mention of the potential for long-term detention, saying only that asylum seekers will receive a safeguarding call if they are not back by 10pm. The Home Office has said that “service users” at the facility “will not be detained, however they are expected to be on site overnight”. However, our public law solicitor Lottie Hume told the Guardian: “The only reason to have a hybrid detention-accommodation facility is for the Home Office to effect removal at a rate which will erode due process and restrict ability to seek help from others.” Linton-on-Ouse residents told the paper they felt their village ‘would never be the same.’