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	Plans to build an accommodation centre in Bicester must be abandoned immediately - Bicester Refugee Support
	Monday 13 June 05

	Bicester Refugee Support today called for plans for an accommodation centre for asylum seekers at Bicester to be abandoned immediately, in the wake of an announcement by the Government on Friday that the failed national policy was to be dropped. This afternoon a spokesperson for Bicester Refugee Support said that the Government had now clearly recognised that the entire scheme for building accommodation centres is unworkable. "Now that the national policy has been abandoned, there can be no justification for building the centre in Bicester. It will not be a trial, it can no longer be said that it will form part of an integrated approach to the processing of asylum applications; it will just be a hugely expensive prototype for a scheme that has already been abandoned." Rarely has a refugee policy so completely united every shade of political opinion in opposition." "We believe that the centre, if it goes ahead, will cause wholly unnecessary trauma and misery for asylum seekers who flee to this country in the hope of refuge and support. They will effectively be imprisoned in a facility with multiple security barriers, perimeter control footpaths, prison-style perimeter lighting, an undisclosed internal secure facility and other prison like features. Furthermore, without the provision of public transport, the operators would effectively be forcing people to remain on site, as there will be no safe means of reaching Bicester or Oxford. "Bicester Refugee Support calls on the government to admit it was wrong and to abandon plans for Bicester immediately. We do not want another public inquiry charade - we want the plans to be dropped today." ENDS Further information: Bicester Refugee Support, telephone 01869 240852 News Release number 008 Bicester Refugee Support www.bicesterrefugeesupport.org.uk/media
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