Letter from Caroline Lucas MEP

3rd December 2008

Sir

This month marks 15 years since the launch of the campaign to close Campsfield House Detention Centre, Kidlington.  It is a sad reflection of this country's failing immigration policy that the UK Border Agency is now planning to open yet another facility in Oxfordshire - one almost four times the size of Campsfield - which will potentially act to criminalise innocent people. This new facility will be run as a Category C prison where detainees will be locked up.

In December 2007, there were 2,095 people recorded as being in detention in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers. We must ensure that the individuals, who are being detained while their applications for asylum are processed, are given the right to live in dignified conditions with proper access to medical care. They must also be allowed access to legal representation

The UK needs a better immigration policy, which does not unfairly penalise and detain those who have the right to apply for asylum in the UK, and one which does not detain children and families for the purposes of immigration control. Detaining children in these prison-like facilities completely goes against the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

With the threat of climate change hanging over us, we face the prospect of millions of environmental refugees who will have nowhere to be 'sent back to'. The UK needs to work  proactively with other Governments, whilst there is still time, to ensure long-term solutions that do not involve unreasonable and undignified detention of individuals.

Dr Caroline Lucas

Green Party MEP for the South East

Suite 58, The Hop Exchange, 24 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TY

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Web: www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk