Sir – Your report on the proposed detention centre near Bicester (October 31) arguing that the centre will bring jobs, hence economic benefit to the area, failed to highlight the enormous public and human costs likely to be incurred.
Estimates show that the new centre would cost in the region of £32m per year to run. Government attempts to build an accommodation detention centre in Bicester in 2002, eventually abandoned in 2005, cost an estimated £18m of public money.
The reality is that despite declining numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Britain in the last five years, there has been an increase in the use of imprisonment and detention. Contrary to popular perception, the punitive regime in Britain is one of the toughest in Europe.
It has led to escalating numbers of prisoners, amongst which foreign nationals are disproportionately represented.
Reports show that there has been more public investment in prisons in the last five years than in the NHS.
Experiences at Campsfield House have shown that detention, in this case, indefinite detention, is inhumane.
The high rates of depression, self-harm, and hunger strikes make this clear. Moreover, detention or imprisonment rarely address the underlying causes behind the need for such measures.
We would argue therefore that the proposed centre is unnecessary.
It will be of little public benefit, neither to the detainees, nor the local community, nor the tax-paying public at large.
Stephanie Kitchen, Coalition Against Bullingdon Immigration Removal Centre (CABIRC, Asylum Welcome, Oxford
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