Protest over Manchester Airport detention centre expansion
04.03.08
Campaigners from Manchester No Borders held a 'noise protest' yesterday to highlight the construction company that will carry out the planned expansion of the immigration detention centre at Manchester Airport. Carillion plc have been awarded contracts to carry out the work, and protesters staged a short but noisy protest outside the Manchester offices of the company, drawing attention to the planned expansion of the detention facility and of Carillion’s involvement.
Banners were attached to the compound’s fencing before security guards called the police. When a police van arrived 10 minutes later, the small group of protesters were quickly dispersed. A spokesman for the group said that few were stopped by the police, who wrote down their descriptions.
The detention centre at Manchester Airport is a short-term holding facility, contracted to Group 4 Securicor. It is intended to hold passengers detained by airport immigration staff for further questioning or those who have been refused permission to enter the country and are awaiting removal on another flight.
However, the group claim that its main function is currently as a staging post for detainees being transferred from one place of detention to another, and from detention centres in the North to airports in the South.
The construction work is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks, and will see the centre’s holding capacity increase from 16 to 32. This is in line with the government’s plans to increase detention capacity from 2,500 to 4,000.
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