Linton-on-Ouse: Asylum charities demand Government drop Greek-style centres after "failed experiment"

The former RAF base was withdrawn by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace earlier this month after months of legal wranglings over the proposed opening of a processing centre which could have housed up to 1,500 lone men in North Yorkshire.

The Home Office insisted that it is still “identifying appropriate sites” for centres in other parts of the UK. But leaders of organisations which work with asylum seekers and refugees said people who are fleeing violence and persecution should always “be housed in communities” and not “warehoused in prison-like conditions”.

They have written a joint letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, which calls on the Ministers to “learn the lessons of this failed experiment at Linton-on-Ouse and scrap the plans for accommodation centres”.

In their letter, seen by The Yorkshire Post, the leaders of organisations which work with asylum seekers and refugees told Ms Patel the site in Linton-on-Ouse was “wholly unsuitable.”

“Warehousing up to 1,500 people in a rural ex-military camp, without easy means of accessing support, would have caused serious harm to people fleeing war and persecution and damaged community relations,” it read.

“We are clear: there are not, and never will be, ‘appropriate’ sites for centres such as these, in Linton or any other community. If these centres go ahead, people seeking asylum will find themselves warehoused in prison-like conditions without adequate advice, healthcare, or support.

“These centres will re-traumatise people, and are being planned with no consideration of the needs of people seeking asylum or local communities.

Signatories of the letter include the heads of Asylum Matters, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the Refugee Council, Doctors of the World UK and the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group.

But the Home Office yesterday doubled down on its commitment to press ahead with opening the mass centres.

A spokesperson said: “The government is steadfastly committed to tackling illegal migration and stopping dangerous small boat crossings. We will continue to identify appropriate sites for Greek-style asylum reception centres which will play a key role in reducing the number of asylum seekers in hotels which cost the taxpayer more than £5m each day.”

Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have backed the Home Office’s “New Immigration Plan” but Mr Sunak distanced himself from the Linton-on-Ouse site before plans were scrapped.

Community tensions similar to those experienced in Linton-on-Ouse will be repeated if the Government presses on with plans to open mass asylum seeker processing centres, the rights campaigners warned.

In their letter they wrote: “The experience at Linton-on-Ouse shows that segregating people in this way, and planning and announcing such facilities without consultation, inevitably leads to community tensions and targeting by the far right, putting at risk both local residents and the people intended to be housed in these facilities.”

“We urge you to learn the lessons of this failed experiment at Linton-on-Ouse and scrap the plans for accommodation centres.