A reader says: "Using a secure reception centre system at Northeye, based on the refugee camp model, isolated but with good facilities and safety for those being detained might be a workable option"

There was an immediate and understandable concern from the residents of the housing estate next door to Northeye. They face the prospect of maybe 1,200 people being housed with no real local resource, especially in that location and no ability to work or relieve inevitable boredom.

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I understand that the riot and fire that broke out at the prison, in 1986, was the result of inmates being dissatisfied with their conditions at that time. I doubt that anyone in the Home Office will have taken the trouble to research any of this or even to advise the local council in advance.

My first thoughts were that, like all the other government announcements being desperately unveiled at the moment, it’s likely that nothing much will actually happen in the end. If it did, then the place would be full in no time at all given the constant arrivals.

There would probably be claims that Northeye will just process and move on detainees quickly but the last time it was tried, in another location, it didn’t work. That approach had to be abandoned in favour of blocking all available hotels nationwide, depressing local economies and putting people out of work.

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The Government is well behind the curve on this issue and I’ve no great hopes for Labour either.

On arrival in the UK, some type of preventive, protective, detention must be a part of any system that seeks to help/manage those who want to claim asylum or maybe help us with the current labour shortage. Other countries do it. It would also screen out those who really don’t want asylum, in the first place, have no entitlement or may pose a real and present danger to society.

Given that thousands of people are now willing to cross the whole of Europe in order to reach Britain, this is essential. Rather than inadequate knee jerk responses, using hotels and abandoned military sites with no real supervision, a secure reception centre system based on the refugee camp model, isolated but with good facilities and safety for those being detained might be a workable option.

The military are on hand and could set up facilities in the way that they put together hospitals so quickly, during the Covid emergency. They are well practised at creating tented camps for disaster relief for example.

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