Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre will take single male detainees again from 2012
Male detainees are to return to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre next year
Single male detainees are to return to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in 2012 for the first time in 10 years, the UK Border Agency has announced.
Since a fire in 2002, the centre has housed only single women and families awaiting immigration clearance.
The decision to re-introduce men comes after it was ruled that children must not be held at the Bedfordshire centre.
The UK Border Agency said that “lessons have been learnt” since single men were last accommodated there.
Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, situated between the villages of Clapham and Milton Ernest, cost £100m to build and opened in November 1991 to house 900 immigration detainees.
Half the building was damaged by a fire in February 2002, following a disturbance by detainees which caused £42m of damage and led to the centre’s closure for more than a year.
