Harmondsworth Emigration Removal Center to Double Capacity

According to reports, the Harmondsworth emigration removal center will be able to hold 630 detainees at one time. The capacity of this emigration center, which is the main detention center near Heathrow, is to be doubled. This makes it the biggest processing and deportation center in all of Europe. Harmondsworth emigration removal center will, starting next month, be able to hold more than 630 people at once.

This privately run emigration detention center has been rebuilt since a major disturbance in 2006. This was the second in its eight and a half year history. During the last disturbance two wings were destroyed, which halved its official capacity to 259 detainees.

Dame Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, said that the imminent opening of a higher security prison type block threatens recent improvements at the troubled removal center. Back in 2006 Owers said that Harmondsworth was the worst emigration removal center they had inspected. The original contractors, Kalyx, formally known as United Kingdom Detention Services, were replaced in June last year by the American private security company, the GEO Group. This is the same group that operates Campefiled House near Oxford.

Right now Britain already has the largest network of emigration detention centers in all of Europe. The next extension of Harmondsworth will add 364 beds to the total number of detainees that the UK can take at one time.

Owers went on to say that since the 2006 disturbance, the prison inspectors have charted a slow but steady progress from this low point. The results of the most recent inspection, which was carried out in January of this year and published this week, shows a big improvement in culture and regime.