Yarl's Wood: Asylum seeker prefab plans scrapped by Home Office

Plans were in place to build prefabricated-style units beside the Immigration Removal Centre at Yarl's Wood

The Home Office has scrapped plans for temporary accommodation for about 200 asylum seekers.

Construction of the prefabricated-style units beside Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire began on the site late last year.

The proposed camp had attracted intense criticism from local residents and religious leaders.

The Home Office said that anticipated extra demand on the asylum system failed to materialise.

Immigration Minister Chris Philp said the government was working to "reduce the cost of the asylum system, which is under significant pressure".

He said the Home Office was "considering a number of accommodation options while we fix the broken asylum system to make it firmer and fairer".

Other temporary accommodation will continue to be used for asylum seekers, including at Napier Barracks in Kent, which was set on fire in January.

Construction of the prefabricated-style units began on the site late last year.

Last month, more than 40 faith group leaders wrote to the government arguing the temporary accommodation would not meet residents' "health and mental well-being needs".

Bedford resident Rosie Newbigging also opposed the plans and her solicitor sent letters to the Home Office and Bedford Borough Council threatening legal action.

Her campaign raised more than £22,000 towards any legal action.

The Labour MP for Bedford, Mohammad Yasin, said he was "relieved and delighted" the plans had been shelved.

"It was a terrible idea to house a vulnerable group of people in hostile, inappropriate and unsafe accommodation in the middle of a pandemic," he said.

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Yarl's Wood, which opened in 2001, can hold about 400 detainees.

The majority were women until August, when the last few female detainees left the site as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The centre has since been used to house dozens of Channel migrants.