Numbers game doesn't add up: It's a national scandal!

Numbers game doesn't add up: It's a national scandal!

Alan Travis, home affairs editor of the Guardian, appears to have lost the plot.

He reports that: "The capacity of Britain's immigration deportation centres is to be expanded to nearly 3,500 as a result of today's announcement by the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, that three "outdated and expensive" prisons would be closed".

I fail to see the connection between the announcement of a reduction in one on the expansion of the other.

"The justice secretary said the closures would reduce the capacity of the prison system by 849".

But, "The capacity of Britain's immigration deportation centres is to be expanded to nearly 3,500".

"The immigration minister, Damian Green, said Morton Hall was needed to boost the UK Border Agency's ability to remove failed asylum seekers from Britain quickly and efficiently".

If the UK is deporting more quickly and efficiently, why is there a need to expand?

According to Wikipedia, between "January - March 2008 2305 people were detained in 'removal centres' in the UK under Immigration Act powers (this figure excludes those held in prisons)".

The latest figures I have seen state that approximately 12,000 are held in prisons.

So, the expanded Immigration Removal Centres estate now stands at 15,500!

Bearing in mind that failed asylum seekers are not criminals and have not been sentenced to custody by the courts, why are they locked up in our prisons and guarded by prison officers working for the Prison Service which is part of the National Offender Management Service?