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Protest calls for closure of Yarl's Wood
More than 200 people join march through Bedford in opposition to plans to double Clapham centre
More than 200 protesters calling for the closure of Yarl's Wood marched through Bedford to the site of the Immigration Removal Centre in Clapham on Saturday, (March 21).
The controversial site currently houses around 450 woman and children, but is about to be doubled in size to hold 500 male detainees.
This new set-up will create a unit for holding foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers, those who have overstayed their visas and others going through the fast-track immigration process.
But protesters want the centre closed down following a number of hunger strikes by detainees and a history of riots and fire, which saw half of the 80million facility burn down on Valentine's Day 2002, three months after it opened.
A spokesperson for the Campaign to Stop Arbitrary Detentions at Yarl's Wood said: "We feel Yarl's Wood should be closed down rather than expanded.
"As it is, Yarl's Wood is a source of shame to everyone in Bedford, the community within which men, women and children who are not accused of any crime are detained arbitrarily and indefinitely.
"We feel the expansion of Yarl's Wood is, in any case, not needed and a waste of public funds. The average estimated cost of holding a detainee is 1,230 a week, so the proposed 500 extra places at Yarl's Wood would cost taxpayers about 32million a year."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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