CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Home Office to scrap “cruel” plans to house asylum-seekers on “wasteland” at Yarl’s Wood. 

The Home Office is seeking to expand the privately run removal immigration centre in Bedfordshire to accommodate up to 200 male asylum-seekers waiting for their claims to be decided. 

The Morning Star understands that the men will be put in single-occupancy prefabricated portacabins on shrubland near the facility. 

It follows widespread criticism of the Home Office using former army bases in Kent and Pembrokeshire to hold asylum-seekers. 

A local who scouted the site last week told the Star that the expansion is already under way. 

Local MPs, members of Bedford Borough Council and campaigners have raised serious concerns. 

Borough Mayor Dave Hogson said that the council has been informed of the plans by the Home Office and called urgently for more details. 

He said: “With the little information we have received, I am worried about the ongoing wellbeing of those housed there, many of whom will be vulnerable and having fled awful conditions and atrocities.”

It is understood that plans to move asylum-seekers to the site on Christmas Eve have been put back. 

The Home Office has claimed that the accommodation will be “habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped” and is being “configured to minimise risks from Covid-19.”

However, Councillor Louise Jackson, who holds the public health portfolio, told the Star: “Given that we are a Tier 4 area with rapidly rising Covid case numbers, I cannot fathom why the Home Office would think the creation of a camp, possibly with shared facilities, is a sensible proposal.

“I think our local health system will really struggle to meet the needs of this incredibly vulnerable cohort in the current circumstances.”

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Ms Jackson said that asylum-seekers’ freedom to move in and out of the gated compound is likely to be limited. 

“From the little I do know, I cannot see how this camp can meet longer-term needs,” she added. 

Yarl’s Wood was closed earlier this year, having been a detention facility for women, but it was reopened in August to hold newly arrived asylum-seekers from Dover. 

Stand Up To Racism Bedford is demanding that government scrap the expansion and has called an online rally at 7.30pm tonight. 

Co-founder Rosie Newbigging told the Star: “I and some other organisations have expressed their total opposition to the proposals. 

“There’s got to be more effective humane alternatives than placing people fleeing war, persecution, torture [and] abject poverty, who’ve had treachrous journeys to get to the UK, at this site.

“They’ll be stuck in the middle of nowhere, kind of on wasteland, with an immigration removal centre which is notorious. It’s horrific. It’s cruel beyond measure.” 

Bail for Immigration Detainees director Celia Clarke said: “The previous system of locking asylum-seekers up while their asylum claims were processed was rightly ruled unlawful.

“It is completely unacceptable that similar processes are being introduced again despite strong condemnation. It is high time the government closed Yarl’s Wood down, along with all other detention centres, and ended detention completely.”

A Home Office statement said: “During these unprecedented times we have worked with local authorities and other partners to provide asylum-seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, with suitable accommodation, as we are required to do by law.”