Just as the Home Office was secretly working on options for new evacuation centers, civil servants in other parts of the department were defending an option that might have made such plans unnecessary. The results of a Home Office program in Newcastle, the first government-funded alternative to detention, were undoubtedly successful. Supporting women asylum seekers in the community has been found to improve their well-being at half the cost of their detention. Vulnerable women who would otherwise have been imprisoned had greater stability and better health. The staff involved in the program were convinced of its benefits. “The officials of the Ministry of Interior who created the project really invested in it and considered that it worked extremely well as an alternative to detention. “Unfortunately, their political masters were less interested,” said a source. Although it approved all of the pilot’s assessment recommendations, Patel’s department buried it. When asked why, the Interior Ministry declined to comment. Another trial funded by the Home Office in Bedford, which helps improve the prospects of undocumented immigrants while protecting them from detention, is also said to be extremely positive. However, it is going to end in June and the concern is that it will be ignored as well. Three other government plans for alternatives to detention have been canceled. Duncan McAuley, chief executive of the Action Foundation, which conducted the Newcastle trial, said he was “really disappointed” that no alternatives were being sought despite evidence that it was a viable solution. MoD housing stock used by households at the former RAF base. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer Last week his outlook darkened further. The passage of the controversial nationality and border law on Wednesday night, critics warn, raises the prospect of more asylum seekers being held alongside more immigration centers to house them. Some already believe that Patel’s pioneering plan for deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda may prove to be a distraction designed to divert control from facilities such as that provided for a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse. . And an Observer investigation into a proposed immigration facility in North Yorkshire has revealed alarming facts that the government appears to have wanted to keep secret. Separated as a reception area, it appears that the Home Office is actually planning to keep an unknown number of the approximately 1,500 asylum seekers it intends to house there. An official government bulletin dated April 14 does not mention the possibility of arrests, saying only that asylum seekers will receive a protection call if they do not return by 22:00. But at a community meeting, recorded in a video taken by Liberty Investigates, local Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake told residents: “There are some people in the area where there will be a detention center element and these people will not be allowed. to leave the detention center “. Later, when the Observer approached, Hollinrake confirmed that “they [the Home Office] he mentioned a booking item to me, but did not say how many would be in it. ” The Interior Ministry responded by saying that “service users” at the facility “will not be detained, but are expected to be on site overnight”. The abandoned RAF base in the city is set to be converted into a shelter for asylum seekers, but details are emerging about plans to detain some of them there. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer Another issue not mentioned is the possible involvement of Serco, the outsourcing company whose staff has been accused of sexually abusing detainees. Data from the North Yorkshire Police and Lyndon Parish Council have suggested that the site may be run by Serco, a detail that is also missing from the government newsletter. Serco already has a contract to manage some of the most controversial immigration evacuation centers, such as Brook House outside Gatwick Airport, where independent observers have reported an increase in self-harm and suicide attempts. Serco and the Interior Ministry chose not to comment. The possibility of a detention center run by a company with such a controversial history is already a cause for concern. Lottie Hume, a lawyer at Duncan Lewis, said: “The only reason for a hybrid detention facility to exist is for the Home Office to evacuate at a rate that erodes the process and limits the ability to seek help from others.” . Agnes Tonah is well aware of the impact of the booking. Ten years after being held at Serco’s infamous Yarl’s Wood’s immigration center in Bedford, the experience continues to haunt her. During Tonah’s 90-day prison sentence after fleeing the war in West Africa, she says her mental health suffered deeply. He knew another young woman who tried to commit suicide because “they could not understand” why they were actually imprisoned. “Detention is a prison. “It’s a traumatic place where people seeking refuge are trapped.” Tonah finds it strange that the UK government has chosen what it describes as a policy of cruelty. “Why imprison me when I was just asking for security? “Detention hurts people.” The passage of the border law promises new damage. It is understandable that the government has an unknown list of other possible locations for immigration centers, and recently opened a new facility only for women. Critics of the new Derwentside facility in County Durham say it is difficult to get inside information. What is known is that some women claim that they have been denied vital, personally, legal advice that the militants say could harm the chances of a successful case, claims that have led to legal challenge. The Interior Ministry responded by saying that face-to-face legal visits “could be facilitated”. The opening of Derwentside remains a blow to supporters of a progressive asylum system. When it opened its doors after Christmas, the number of women detained in the UK for immigration reached a record low of 24. Within weeks, the results of Newcastle’s alternative detention system were discussed at the Home Office and then pushed aside. It marks a long decline since 2015, when then-Home Secretary Theresa May called for a review that concluded that ministers should reduce detention numbers “boldly and without delay” along with a “presumption against detention” of victims of rape and sexual violence and those who suffer. post-traumatic stress disorder. Jackie Holder lives near the proposed facility, which residents have vowed to block. Photo: Gary Calton / The Observer A closer working relationship was established with the United Nations to find a solution to the detention, resulting in a working group of the Ministry of Interior and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the issue, which first met in October 2017. Such enlightened ambitions have been leveled by Patel. Celebrating the passage of its divisive bill on Thursday, the Home Office confirmed that the main goal was “the removal of those who have no right to be in the United Kingdom”. McAuley said: “As the passage of the bill clearly shows, this government is clearly committed to a more costly, less effective and inhumane approach to managing immigration.” In Linton-on-Ouse, locals fear that life may never be the same. There is talk of resorting to extreme tactics such as those used by Extinction Rebellion activists, such as getting stuck in fences and roads. “Right now, nothing is off the table. “People are becoming quite desperate,” said Marc Goddard, a parish councilor. It likens the plans to the flooding of another North Yorkshire village, the West End, which sank in the 1960s to make way for a reservoir that supplied Leeds with drinking water. “I feel this is happening in this village. “We are collateral damage, they were sacrificed, just to erase the shortcomings of a really incompetent Home Office,” Goddard said.
