Created by: startx.<br/> true true <p>Driven by what appears to be a decline in business, Arora<br /> Management Services Ltd has applied to the Crawley Borough Council for permission to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick airport, Mercure,<br /> into an immigration detention centre. If the planning permission is<br /> granted, the hotel will be converted into a secure, prison and the 245<br /> bedrooms into single and family cells.</p> <p>Like other private companies that run privatised detention<br /> centres across the country, Arora is trying to sell its plan by<br /> arguing that locating detention centres at airports would make<br /> deportations easier and less costly for the government.</p> <p>The Crawley Borough Council's Local Plan 2000 states that<br /> planning permission "will not be granted for development within<br /> the airport boundary which is not clearly required in this location<br /> for [the airports] operational, functional, safety or security<br /> reasons."</p> <p>Gatwick airport already has two detention centres: Tinsley House,<br /> which can hold 125 male and female detainees, and the newly opened<br /> Brook House, which can hold 426. Both are run by private security<br /> company G4S.</p> <p>Eight out of the UK's 11 immigration detention centres are run by<br /> private companies. Four are located inside or near airports.</p> <p>Campaigners argue that locating detention centres inside airports<br /> also serves to keep detention and deportations out of the public gaze<br /> as airports are subject to special bylaws and accessing them, for<br /> example by visitors and campaigners, is much harder.</p> <p>One of the protesters, who preferred to keep anonymous, said:<br /> "This is just another example of cynical, profit-driven<br /> opportunism of big companies wanting a slice of the lucrative<br /> detention market. Thousands of innocent migrants are locked up in<br /> immigration prisons across the country or prolonged periods of time<br /> pending their forcible deportation. With no right to automatic bail<br /> and no access to adequate legal representation, they are treated like<br /> criminals when their only 'crime' is seeking safety or a better life.<br /> It wouldn't be too far-fetched to argue that it is profit-driven<br /> companies like Arora and G4S that drive such draconian<br /> policies."</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>http://london.noborders.org.uk</p> 3 noborderslondon@riseup.net 2009-10-06T09:24:48+00:00 2544 promoted one of noborders

<p>Campaigners protest against plans to turn Gatwick hotel into a<br /> detention centre</p> <p>* Because there is more profit in having guests who can't leave!<br /> * Arora plans to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick airport into<br /> an immigration detention centre.<br /> * Campaigners vow to target the company unless the plans are<br /> dropped.</p> <p>Anti-detention campaigners are currently holding a protest inside<br /> the Arora International Hotel near Heathrow airport against what they<br /> described as the hotel company's "cynical, profit-driven<br /> opportunism." Armed with a banner and leaflets, they are<br /> demanding that Arora drops its plans to turn one of its hotels into an<br /> immigration prison.</p>

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