To explain what an immigration detention centre actually is

[ThesebeautifulthingsthatIvegot]

AIBU to explain what an immigration detention centre is? We have a major political party stating that they want to build new detention centres in constituencies that vote for another party. But even they seem confused, if not intentionally misleading people. So I thought I'd save people a bit of Googling as there seems to be some serious misunderstanding. So below is a Google summary. Happy to be told I'm unreasonable for trying to educate people.

An immigration detention centre (or Immigration Removal Centre - IRC) is a secure facility where foreign nationals are held, often in prison-like conditions, while the government resolves their immigration status. These centres are used to detain asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, or those awaiting deportation.
Administrative Process:
Detention is not a criminal sentence ordered by a court, but an administrative decision often made by immigration authorities.
Purpose: Centers are primarily used for initial processing, establishing identity, or holding individuals for removal/deportation from the country.
Conditions: Despite not being prisons, many facilities are high-security with locked cells, limited contact with the outside world, and often managed by private companies.
Legal Standing: People detained often include asylum seekers and people whose visas have expired

I didn't live near a detention centre

I said very clearly, I lived near one of the hotels. So they're free to come and go as they please.

I was followed around - my parents were followed around too. We found out later that they are encouraged to seek out people who they believed to be of the same ethnic origin in case they can get help from them

There was a massive increase in crime locally including stabbings and sexual assault

The management company for the block of flats was very aware of it and although the bus stop was practically outside, there were a couple of times we got letters asking us to be extra careful. Really appreciate the management company being so involved there.

They get recruited by local gangs to help with drug dealing other dubious things. They are vulnerable to exploitation and that never leads down a good path.

Generally, it was amazing how it led to such a big decline in the area. I'm a pessimist, but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it is. This is about 10 years ago though when it wasn't such a big problem. So I knew it was a problem, it's one of those things you know if you have common sense and you don't suffer from virtue signalling, but I didn't think it would be this bad

But looking at people who have been raped, attacked, murdered - as an area we got off lightly. I've moved now anyway

Rhiannon Whyte, Wayne Broadhurst and Gurvinder Johal stick in my mind the most- but I've hit that point where I just try filter it out. Otherwise, my anger just damages me. And as long as people are making so much money out of it, I don't think anything will be done.

I've also lost friends in a terror attack so I struggle with reporting of really tough things. I think that's a fair response when you've watched parents bury their adult children, who are kind of their best friends too, after you hit a certain age.

I think it's time to go and watch some cheerful TV or something

Good luck with your raising awareness - perhaps something useful will come of it

Aww that sounds lovely, I’m sure you would enjoy staying in one then.

If you read my other posts, I explain how these camps are working out in the U.S. where they are very far removed from safe places with people dying in custody and being starved.

You seem a bit confused over what a detention center is. Nobody would be outside getting bored or getting jobs. it works like prison where people are locked up.

Detention centres are for people awaiting removal, not for people who are waiting for their claims to be processed.

They are basically a short stay prison before you get stuck on a charter flight back to Jamaica or wherever.

I visited Yarls Wood detention centre back when families were detained there as well as single women. It was a very difficult place to be and I wouldn’t wish it on another human being. Children behind bars. Parents desperate for help. Medical attention, particularly for mental health was difficult to obtain. Suicide attempts were regular and extremely distressing for the children who were aware of them as well as the adults (including the staff). The women I met there had mostly been detained on arrival and were fleeing persecution. Some had also been detained after working in the UK without the right to do so. I was very glad when the government stopped detaining children and hope we never go back to that.
I understand the need for IRCs and would be happy to have one near my home. We currently have detention centres at major airports too, mostly for single men and I’ve visited a couple of those, but only for an hour or so as people tend to be there shorter term than the main centres. As far as I can tell they are no different to a prison in terms of security and I live fairly close to a prison and an airport detention centre at the moment and have never experienced a problem as a result.

Funny that isn’t it.. It’s never been a problem for you or anyone you know … same here! What a coincidence!

Where is it well documented? GB News, Daily Mail? Facebook groups.

Have you thought to fact check or do you follow blindly the rich white men who want to distract you into believing that your problems are down to a small number of brown people coming to our country to seek refuge.

The international law you’re talking about is the 1951 Convention relating to the status of Refugees.

It's cheaper in the UK to give people asylum and then you don't have to house them hence why most people get asylum (at least that's what happened when I was working in this field) No, that’s really not what happened when you were working in this field. It doesn’t happen now and it didn’t happen then. You’ve completely misunderstood both asylum policy and the support and accommodation available to those seeking asylum in the UK.

In my area they wanted to turn an old site into a detention centre. People didn’t want them because they are inhumane, as opposed to not wanting them because they are against migrants.

Poland is home to over a million refugees. About twice as many as the UK. Odd example to choose.

Nothing wrong with it, if only the many of our own homeless people with nowhere safe to sleep were treated in the same way

@Plasticdreams "Have you thought to fact check or do you follow blindly the rich white men"

i'm not rich, I'm not white. I'm not a man.

I have listed the problems I had living near an asylum seeker hotel - problems that were experienced by many people in the local community, more for women though for obvious reasons

If you don't want to listen to us, there's nothing I can do, but plenty of us are speaking out

The ONS and the MOJ do not keep statistics but if you have a look at Court News or just listen to those of us who have the experience, you might learn more about it.

No one is blaming all their problems on this

But to deny that it's a problem is unfair.

Oh you mean the people who didn’t vote to leave the EU? Thats what kicked off massively increased immigration, and people were warned before voting. So all Remain voting areas should be safe. That’s good to know!

I don't support Reform but you posting an ai summary is hardly going to convince any people who were going to vote for them otherwise. It is like Brexit all over again, but more dumbed down.

@ThesebeautifulthingsthatIvegot you might also be interested in the work of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia and suffered FGM. She has a huge catalogue of work so I won't link anything.

I had the great privilege of meeting her not long after Theo van Gogh was murdered, so very difficult times for her. A huge impressive woman and well beyond my intellectual stature! Yes, I felt intimidated to meet her 😂 (also met her husband, Niall Ferguson, in later years. He is gorgeous in real life. Not that anyone asked, but just in case you wanted to know 😂)

So how do you explain the same problem happening in European countries who are still in the EU?

So people would be “vouched for” by the Taliban, the Iranian regime…

Do you think it’s a good idea to only take in Afghans that the Taliban have given the thumbs up to?

I think we should be more like some other countries and force integration if it’s not happening. So breaking up ghettos and mandating that all children attend day care for a set period each week where they learn English and British values.

Illegal immigrants should absolutely be automatically detained and background checked so we can assess whether they are suitable for entry into our society. Allowing people to work during this time would be helpful….jobs within the bounds of the detention centre.

There’s nothing wrong with the above. People can still be treated with respect and given a safe place to live. We need people who come here to integrate.

I’m not denying that some of the people coming into the country will cause problems and we need a better system to manage immigration,

But the staff in our care homes, and the nurses and doctors in this country aren’t voting for reform! Why is that? Because we don’t trust reform and predominantly these people are immigrants.

Have you been to the memorial in Trinity Square in London for all of those who lost their lives at sea, defending England in WW1 and 2. Thousands of names of immigrants who fought and died to defend us.

We are nothing in this country without immigration. The old version of the UK will never be again, we have to evolve. Crime in London is at its lowest in decades and it’s never been so diverse. This information is readily available if you want to look.

white men in this country still pose more of a danger to us statistically.

We have problems with wealth inequality, like we never had in the past and this pushes people towards crime. We need to tackle this and give younger people more support in community to spot radicalisation, drug dealing etc and invest more money in mental health services and policing again amongst other things

Are you calling for rough sleepers to be locked up in detention centres? When would they get to leave?

That simply isn’t true. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0w9zw57glo

The small boat numbers began increasing in 2018. Well before we stopped being able to utilise the Dublin Agreement (which did not play the role you might think it did). And the reason for that is that it is far easier and safer for the traffickers to load 80 people onto a poor quality rhib on a French beach with no security guards or PAF, than it is to get a handful of people into the back of a lorry and through UK Border Force, and have to do that over and over again until the lorry they’re in gets through BF and onto a ferry bound for the UK. Much less work, much less risk, much more money. It’s hardly surprising that numbers increased.

@EmeraldRoulette I misread and that's on me - it probably came across as disingenuous but it was an error. I hope that sharing your experience wasn't harmful and that your cheerful TV is successful.

What you've said is so personal and also insightful as to the real nature of things.

In all communities, some people are bad, and will do bad things. Many more people behave poorly because they are desperate (I know of this from working with young offenders, as well as from the rat/cocaine experiment). The proportion of desperate people in a migrant hotel is going to be off the charts. And putting lots of desperate people together seems mad to me. In a detention centre, they are no short-term risk to people outside of the centre. In a hotel, they are.

Both the greens and reform think that they have a solution to the kind of experience you and your neighbors went through. The greens propose reducing red tape around immigration so that the people who would have been in a hotel are in the community. Reform propose tightening controls so that people are detained instead of being in a hotel (I think - anyone correct me if I'm wrong). There is logic in both arguments but I am personally not on board with either. However, the current system is clearly not working either.

In the end, like many things, it is complicated. I've said I wanted to start a debate and it tracks that I'm now more confused than ever. I know that reform 100% isn't for me, but you have made me think about some issues with the current system.

@Plasticdreams I'm descended from immigrants

I know all of this

It does not sit well with how we handle the situation now

I don't feel as if you are thinking in terms of 2026. There is a difference between having a thoughtful and considered system - of anything - and what we have now.

Actually, careful thought doesn't seem to have factored into politics for awhile now! It's like everyone's been asleep at the wheel since Boris Johnson!

I'm not voting Reform but some of their candidates in the south-east I think are descended from immigrants as well. As I said, I don't feel as if you are up-to-date on this.

I really am leaving the thread now... must stop doom scrolling...

@EmeraldRoulette it was clear a while back that our politics weren't exactly aligned, but praising Boris Johnson is shocking!

I'm also off as this is far too much for this time of night!

No, just a roof over their heads, instead of a sleeping bag on the pavement outside a hotel with illegals hanging out of the windows laughing at them.
Oh and before you proclaim that "this doesn't happen" ....it does becaue i have witnessed it

I wasn't praising him 😂😂😂

Oh dear, it's too late to edit

No, I meant it all turned to shit with Boris Johnson being asleep at the wheel

He seems to have set the bar there

I blame him for lots of things - most things in fact

I thought I had phrased that fine, but obviously not - hang on isn't it Obvious that saying "since Boris Johnson" includes Boris Johnson?