Migrants will be detained at new Northeye centre, MP says

The Northeye site is just outside Bexhill-on-Sea

A former prison in East Sussex will now become a detention centre for illegal migrants if revised plans get the go-ahead, the local MP says.

Huw Merriman, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle, said if the plans get the go ahead, Northeye would be a closed site.

He said the existing buildings would need to be demolished, creating jobs in the area.

The government said it has not confirmed what will happen to the site.

Mr Merriman told the BBC: "The passing of the Legal Migration Act makes it illegal for migrants to cross, and if they do they will have to go to a detained closed centre. We therefore need those detained closed centres because previously all those put forward across the country had been open.

"That's where I've made the case for Bexhill. If any of those sites across the country should be a closed site it should be that one."

He said the main concern he had heard from his constituents over an open centre was 1,200 men being able to move freely across the town.

"The site will have to be built as a detained site along the lines of how a prison site would end up being built."

He said: "Where there's a centre like there, where there's a prison, there's always a boost for the local economy."

The government is working to turn the ex-prison into accommodation for up to 1,200 men

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to the removal of foreign criminals and those with no right to be in the UK.

"Immigration removal centres play a vital role in controlling our borders and we have been finding further solutions to scale up our detention capacity."

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