First look at UK’s first ‘Greek-style asylum centre’: Abandoned Yorkshire RAF base inspired by Greece which holds migrants in shipping-style containers and subjects them to checks on their movements and curfews
- Decision to use Linton-on-Ouse comes as PM prepares to unveil hardline policy
- It will see asylum seekers flown 4,000 miles away to Rwanda for processing
- In the UK migrants will be held in ‘Greek-style reception centres’ with containers
An abandoned RAF base in a tiny North Yorkshire village will soon be used to house asylum seekers for up to six months in shipping-style containers and subject them to checks on movements and curfews.
The decision to use Linton-on-Ouse – population 1,200 – comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to unveil a new hardline immigration policy.
It will see asylum seekers flown 4,000 miles away to Rwanda to have their claims processed following a £120 million deal with the African country.
In the UK migrants will be held in ‘Greek-style reception centres’, the first of which will be built at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.
Channel migrants will have to stick to strict rules or else they could lose their right to asylum.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is modelling the centre on Greek asylum camps where migrants undergo routine checks of their movements and have curfews.
‘If they breach the rules, it could affect their asylum claim,’ said a UK government source to the Telegraph.
‘You would be told that you would have to be in by this time. That’s fair rules for operating if you provide food and accommodation. The Greeks have things like timings.’
The decision to use Linton-on-Ouse – population 1,200 – comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to unveil a new hardline immigration policy
It will see asylum seekers flown 4,000 miles away to Rwanda to have their claims processed following a £120 million deal with the African country. Pictured: Linton-on-Ouse
An abandoned RAF base in a tiny North Yorkshire village will soon be used to house asylum seekers for up to six months
In the UK migrants will be held in ‘Greek-style reception centres’, the first of which will be built at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Pictured: Migrant container camp in Kleedi in Greece
Pictured: Migrant shipping containers in Kleedi, Greece
A migrant camp in Kleedi, Greece, where shipping containers are used
It is understood local residents were not briefed or consulted on the plans, which came to light this week.
The village has been left feeling ‘like a ghost town’ since the withdrawal of air force personnel over the last three years.
The RAF base has lain empty since 2020, when the Ministry of Defence announced it would no longer be actively using the site.
It was expected to be sold in the coming years, but the government has now revealed a new use for the 680-acre facility.
Accommodation for asylum seekers will be set up, while a processing centre will also be built.
Initially, it will house migrants who arrive in the UK on boats, although Thirsk and Malton’ Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake has also proposed that the site is also opened to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war with Russia.
A general view of a registration and hospitality center for refugees and migrants, known as a hotspot, on the southeastern Greek island of Leros
Pictured: An asylum centre on the southeastern Greek island of Leros that is filled with shipping containers
A reception centre for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Leros
In a statement, Mr Hollinrake said: ‘I have recently met with the Immigration Minister following the announcement the RAF site at Linton-on-Ouse will be used as an asylum seeker accommodation and processing centre. It forms part of increase in capacity measure to deliver more timely decisions.
‘I appreciate my constituents may have a number of questions about this site, but it is important to note these claims must be processed somewhere and in a humane and managed manner.
‘I want to assure constituents I will be working closely with the Home Office on this throughout.
How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work?
Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda
- Plan is limited to male migrants only
- Initial agreement worth £120million over five years
- Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa
- Initially based at hostel in Kigali
- Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists
- Privately owned, the East African nation’s government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property
- Royal Navy to take over Channel policing role from Border Force from today
- PM attacked ‘a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers’ who have thwarted previous action
- PM: ‘Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can’t ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.’
‘It is crucial that those being processed are housed in suitable and appropriate settings, with recreation and social facilities to enable those individuals to live as normal a life as possible.
‘I have been assured the time limit for any asylum seekers to remain the site will be 180 days and I have ensured the Minister is clear this must be stuck to, to ensure those waiting for decisions are not unduly delayed.’
Mr Hollinrake added that he is in discussions with the government about how to minimise ‘disturbance’ to local residents in the small village.
It is anticipated that up to 300 jobs could be created on the RAF base, including ‘a number of new business opportunities in catering and other areas’.
Mr Hollinrake said: ‘There are a number of conditions I wanted to ensure were considered in advance of the site opening.
‘I have made it clear the local community must be at the heart of these plans, prioritising those in the area for any jobs which may be required at the site.’
‘I have spoken to other members of parliament who already have similar facilities in their areas. Initial concerns around disturbance to local communities has not been borne out in practice, so hopefully this will be the case here also.
‘I have also asked the Minister if he can consider opening the site up to Ukrainian refugees, given the heartwarming response from Thirsk and Malton constituents to the crisis.
‘I will keep constituents updated with any further developments.’
There are concerns about the new Rwandan immigration policy considering the country’s human rights record.
According to the campaign group Human Rights Watch, ‘arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities is commonplace, and fair trial standards are routinely flouted in many sensitive political cases, in which security-related charges are often used to prosecute prominent government critics. Arbitrary detention and mistreatment of street children, sex workers and petty vendors occurs widely.’
It comes as Boris Johnson ordered the Royal Navy to police the English Channel and stop small boats from today.
The Prime Minister ordered warships to take over from the Border Force as the latest wave of arrivals from France were pictured landing in Kent.
Speaking just a few miles away he hailed the UK as a ‘beacon of openness’ before confirming an agreement with Rwanda to send boat people 4,000 miles to the east African nation – in many cases permanently.
In a speech this morning the Prime Minister invoked the spirit of Brexit as he unveiled the £120million scheme, saying: ‘The British people voted several times to control our borders.’
He said that while the UK’s compassion may be ‘endless’, its capacity to host people was not, adding: ‘We cannot expect the UK taxpayer to write a black cheque.’
The Prime Minister ordered warships to take over from the Border Force as the latest wave of arrivals from France were pictured landing in Kent.
In a speech this morning the Prime Minister invoked the spirit of Brexit as he unveiled the £120million scheme , saying: ‘The British people voted several times to control our borders.’
Ministers have struck a ‘world-first’ deal with the government of Paul Kigame to host economic migrants. Home Secretary Priti Patel arrived in Rwandan capital Kigali last night and is due to sign a five-year agreement today.
Officials believe the agreement to ‘off-shore’ the processing of asylum seekers will deter thousands of migrants from crossing the Channel in dinghies, saving lives and cutting off income from the criminal gangs that control the trade.
But the plan has already faced a massive backlash, with claims that it is both cruel and expensive. Rwanda is best known in the west for a 1994 ethnic genocide that left up to 800,000 Tutsi people dead and it still has a mixed human rights records.
Amnesty International says there are still concerns over ‘enforced disappearances, allegations of torture and excessive use of force’. Earlier this month the Refugee Minister Lord Harrington said there was ‘no possibility’ of migrants being sent there.
But Mr Johnson today branded it ‘dynamic’ and one of the safest countries in the world. And answering questions in Kigali, Ms Patel said the country had an ‘established record of welcoming and integrating people’.
Speaking at a press conference she said the African country had ‘one of the strongest records for refugee resettlement’ and, in recent years, had resettled more than 130,000 refugees.
Speaking in Kent he said that while the UK’s compassion may be ‘endless’, its capacity to host people was not, adding: ‘We cannot expect the UK taxpayer to write a black cheque.’
It is understood Channel migrants will be processed in the UK and officials will decide whether they are a genuine asylum seeker. If they are deemed to be economic migrants, they will be sent to Rwanda, where schemes will be put in place to help them build a new life.
It is thought that in other cases, all asylum processing will take place after the claimant arrives in Rwanda. Britain will pay the costs of their resettlement.
A source told the Telegraph that the British Army would be involved to prevent ‘battles on the quayside’, adding: ‘They will drive you to the airport and send you straight to Rwanda’.
The Refugee Council charity was among those to urge an immediate rethink of the plan, with chief executive Enver Solomon saying it would not work and would cost the taxpayer around £1.4billion a year as part of the while asylum system.
The United Nations refugee agency also expressed concern over the ‘shifting rather than the sharing of responsibilities’.
In a speech this morning the Prime Minister will invoked the spirit of Brexit as he unveils a £120million scheme to send men who cross from France in small boats to East Africa, saying: ‘The British people voted several times to control our borders.’
Labour and Mr Johnson’s Tory critics claimed it was an expensive move to switch attention away from the Partygate row which continues to embarrass No10.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, told the Guardian it was a ‘shameful announcement meant to distract from Boris Johnson’s recent law-breaking.
‘It is an unworkable, unethical and extortionate policy that would cost the UK taxpayer billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis and would make it harder, not easier, to get fast and fair asylum decisions,’ she said.
Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell said housing asylum seekers at the Ritz hotel would be cheaper than offshoring, claiming the cost to the British taxpayer would be £2million per person, per year.
Mr Johnson criticised the ‘rank unfairness’ of the current asylum system, which he claimed is being exploited by men entering via small boat crossings at the expense of women and children.
Speaking at Lydd Airport near Dungeness, the Prime Minister said: ‘Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can’t ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.
‘Uncontrolled immigration creates unmanageable demands on our NHS and on our welfare state, it overstretches our local schools, our housing and public transport and creates unsustainable pressure to build on precious green spaces.
‘Nor is it fair on those who are seeking to come here legally if others can bypass the system. It’s a striking fact that around seven out of 10 of those arriving in small boats last year were men under 40 paying people smugglers to queue jump and taking up our capacity to help genuine women and child refugees.
‘This is particularly perverse as those attempting crossings are not directly fleeing imminent peril, as is the intended purpose of the asylum system. They pass through manifestly safe countries including many in Europe where they could and should claim asylum.
‘It’s this rank unfairness of a system that can be exploited by gangs which risks eroding public support for the whole concept of asylum.’
Source: Read Full Article
