Derwentside immigration detention centre for women to open

A new immigration detention centre for women will open in County Durham, the government has announced.

Derwentside removal centre will replace Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire as the UK's only unit dedicated for women.

It will house foreign national prison inmates due for release and immigration offenders awaiting deportation, with capacity for 84 people.

The Home Office hopes the centre will be operational by the end of the year and says it will create 200 jobs.

The site previously served as the Medomsley detention centre for young offenders and was the scene of widespread abuse for decades before it shut in 1988.

It then operated as the Hassockfield Secure Training Centre until 2015, and two years ago plans to turn the site into housing were revealed.

The plan to repurpose the site had been opposed by Durham County Council.

Earlier this month, council leader Lib Dem Amanda Hopgood said: "To reuse it as a detention centre for whatever purpose will bring back an awful lot of memories for people and not good ones.

"I'm not sure how reasonable a site in the location in the County Durham countryside near Consett is, given most of these people will be transferred hundreds of miles to get here away from people they know."

Derwentside replaces Yarl's Wood, which was repeatedly criticised over its poor conditions, which led to numerous protests by detainees, including hunger strikes.

Announcing the Derwentside decision, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "Detention plays a limited, but crucial role in maintaining effective immigration control and securing our borders. It is right that those with no right to remain in the UK are removed if they do not leave voluntarily.

"This new, smaller immigration removal centre will replace Yarl's Wood as the only dedicated immigration removal centre for women.

"These changes will significantly reduce the overall immigration detention capacity for women."

She said the government was "committed to ensuring the proper protection and treatment of vulnerable people in detention", adding: "Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of women is at the forefront of the new facility, and builds on the learning and experience of Yarl's Wood."

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