Immigration centre escapes increase fears

12 April 2007 09:50

Security concerns about the kind of immigration centre which could come to RAF Coltishall have risen following news of spiralling escape figures at a similar complex in Cambridgeshire.

A government decision on whether to locate an immigration removal centre at the now closed RAF site is still awaited.

But the anxieties of local people have been fuelled by new figures which show that the Oakington centre had a major rise in attempted and actual escapes.

There were 19 escapes and seven attempts last year, compared to four of each in 2005.

Last month, two detainees broke out after climbing over a fence, just weeks after the escape of four other detainees.

District councillor Alan Mallett said: "That sort of thing is obviously going to be of considerable concern to people in the village. The lack of security has always been a major concern should RAF Coltishall become an immigration centre."

However, he added that an escapee would not "hang about" in the area.

Coltishall parish council chairman John Harding added: "Security has always been the main concern of the people living in the area of the three parishes. It's a worrying trend for anybody who might be living nearby."

RAF Coltishall closed last year after an illustrious 60-year history stretching back to the second world war.

Senior members of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), the arm of the Home Office responsible for immigration and asylum, travelled to Norfolk last month to answer questions from councillors, MPs and other parties about possible plans for a holding centre, with a final decision not expected until the end of May.

A Home Office spokesman last night said any centre at Coltishall would have "prison standard" perimeter fencing which was higher than that at Oakington, where "procedural

and physical security improvements" had

been implemented to reduce the number of

escapes.

Email A Friend