UK: Prison for asylum seekers
01 May 1999
The government has recently approved plans for a new prison for asylum seekers. Aldington prison in Kent, currently administered by the Prison Service, is to be closed by the end of August and handed over to the Immigration Service. It is envisaged that asylum seekers presenting "acute control problems" will be detained at Aldington, rather than at "low-security" centres such as Campsfield. This move is designed to ease pressure on other jails, such as Rochester Prison in Kent, in which asylum seekers are currently detained under the 1971 Immigration Act. The Act allows for the detention of asylum seekers for unspecified periods of time, in an apparent contradiction to the UK's obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which state that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. The creation of another detention centre, with a prison-style regime, has provoked criticisms from organisations such as the Medical Foundation for Care of the Victims of Torture and the British Refugee Council, who condemn the criminalisation of people who have committed no crime and who are often already severely traumatised by their experiences of persecution and flight.
Independent 28.6.99.