Image source, UK News in Pictures
Police and prison staff were called to the immigration center after the ‘trouble’
‘Unacceptable levels of violence’ took place at a west London immigration center during a power cut, the immigration minister has said.
During the incident, it is understood that a group of inmates left their rooms and entered the yard armed with various weapons at Harmondsworth Removal Centre. No one was hurt.
Robert Jenrick expects the center to be emptied by the end of the day.
He said those responsible for the violence would be “held accountable”.
The disorder took place at the premises following an ‘unprecedented and sustained’ overnight power outage at Harmondsworth Detention Center near Heathrow Airport.
It is home to hundreds of men, including adult male asylum seekers, foreign offenders awaiting deportation and men who are illegally in the UK.
The Home Office said no inmates left the scene and those involved have since been returned to their rooms.
In a statement, Mr Jenrick, who visited the center on Saturday, said: “Fortunately, no staff working there or anyone detained there were injured, despite clear evidence of unacceptable levels of violence and disorder.
“The priority now is to move people to other centers while engineers repair the power outage and repair any damage…
“The perpetrators of these disturbances will be held accountable and, if necessary, expelled from the country as quickly as possible.”
Metropolitan Police officers attended the incident on Friday evening, but no arrests were made and the prison service’s own riot squad was not called.
A government report on Harmondsworth Immigration Center revealed concerns about the site, including living conditions “below an acceptable standard”, following a review visit last year.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons reported dirty cell toilets, pest problems and dilapidated communal showers.
Other concerns raised included high levels of vulnerability among detainees, people deemed to be at risk of being detained too long, and detainees locked in their cells during lunch and overnight.
The purpose-built immigration removal center opened in 2000 and has a capacity of approximately 670 people. It is managed by subcontractors Mitie Care and Custody.
The center has had a controversial history. In October 2012, inmate Prince Fosu, 31, was found dead on the floor of his cell, and two companies running the center were prosecuted.
Conditions at the center were described as “deplorable” by a 2016 report, which said some detainees had been detained for too long.
It comes as the government faced widespread criticism this week for its handling of overcrowding at an immigration center in Kent.
The Manston processing center has come under the spotlight after reports emerged that migrants, including families, were being held for four weeks in violation of the law.
The site, intended to hold people for up to 24 hours, was built to accommodate 1,600 migrants at a time – but Home Secretary Chris Philp said there were more than 4,000 on Monday.
Defending the government after criticism of its handling of the situation, Mr Philp said on Friday there had been a “dramatic improvement” in conditions.
Mr Philp, MP for the area, admitted mistakes had been made after two groups of migrants from central Manston were stranded in London.
He said the two groups had told immigration officials they had addresses to go to, but “that later turned out not to be the case”.
“I don’t know how this misunderstanding came about, maybe it got lost in translation, but it’s clear they’ve all been taken care of,” he said.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the challenge of migrants entering the UK via the English Channel as “serious and unprecedented” in an interview with The Times on Saturday.
“There is no easy overnight solution to this challenge,” he said.
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