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Labour is pressing ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said detention capacity will be increased with the provision of 290 beds across Campsfield House and Haslar.
The former, in Oxfordshire, closed in 2019 while the latter in Gospar, Hampshire, shut in 2015.
In 2022, the then Conservative government said it would re-open both facilities to increase detention capacity by 1,000 at any given time, at the cost of £339m.
There has been strong local opposition to the plans, with critics pointing out that Campsfield House closed following years of problems including hunger strikes, self harm and suicides.
A Home Office source said they take the welfare and safety of people in their care “very seriously” and removals will be carried out “with dignity and respect”.
Sky News understands that the long-term intention is for 1,000 beds to be made available across the two sites, but 290 are part of the first phase of development and building work.
According to the Home Office, ministers have set their sights on achieving over the next six months “the highest rate of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers” since 2018.
Staff will be redeployed to help drive an increase in returns, which the government said had dropped by 40% since 2010.
The measure is part of a wider effort to get a grip on the UK’s immigration and asylum system.
Labour promised in its election-winning manifesto to create a new Border Security Command to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel, using money diverted from the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme.
The Tories spent around £700m on the plan but not a single asylum seeker was sent there under it because of legal setbacks, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declaring it “dead and buried” days after taking office.
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