Dungavel to be replaced with new facility near Glasgow Airport

The Home Office has announced that the controversial detention facility in Lanarkshire is to close towards the end of next year and will be replaced with a short-term holding facility near Glasgow Airport.

It has been criticised for its poor conditions, with detainees claiming they are treated like prisoners. It brought an end to the practice of detaining children in 2010.

Jerome Phelps, director of Detention Action, said that Dungavel’s closure was an important move in reducing the number of migrants held in detention, but expressed concern about plans to move them from Glasgow Airport to immigration centres south of the border after seven days.

He said: “People could be forced to abandon legal challenges in the Scottish courts, and start again with new solicitors in the English courts. The government should give a clear commitment not to detain, in England, migrants with pending asylum or immigration claims in Scotland, other than in exceptional circumstances.”

Communities Secretary Angela Constance (pictured) said a replacement rapid removal facility meant “a real risk that people who have been living in Scotland will either have their opportunities to challenge their deportation restricted or be taken to immigration removal centres far away from their families, friends and legal representation”.

Naomi McAuliffe, director of Amnesty International in Scotland said that the UK required a more human approach in general to detention.

She said: “Goodwill’s remarks focus on the fact that the new holding facility is near Glasgow airport and will save money. The reality is that indefinite detention is expensive, ineffective, and extremely harmful to many of the people held.

“Dungavel was cited in the Shaw report last year substandard accommodation and damaging use of indefinite detention. Any plans for a new facility must take into account the rights of the people who will be held there.”