Haslar Immigration Removal Centre: Plans submitted to get it ready to reopen - details and reopening date

Cushman & Wakefield has submitted plans to Gosport Borough Council for the demolition of ancillary buildings within the IRC which are ‘in poor condition and no longer fit for purpose’. The company is acting on behalf of the Home Office which has invested in removal centres amid ‘an unprecedented rise in small boat crossings’. IRCs house asylum seekers pending a final decision in their cases or removal from the country.

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• Proposal raises serious concerns

Planning documents state the Haslar site is ‘currently being refurbished in order that it is fit for purpose when it reopens as an IRC’.

“Only buildings that are considered of little historic or architectural interest are proposed for demolition or partial demolition.

“Furthermore, the removal of the buildings and structures will enhance the setting of the existing barracks buildings, as it will remove more recent and unsympathetic alterations to the site.”

As some of the buildings are within the Haslar Barracks Conservation Area (HBCA) which makes it necessary for the Home Office to seek planning permission for their demolition.

Haslar IRC was closed in 2015, under the coalition government, following a parliamentary review which highlighted immigration detention as ‘expensive and damaging to detainees’. In September last year, the Home Office unveiled plans to reopen Haslar to house 600 male asylum seekers. The facility is expected to open at the end of 2023, residents can view and comment on the application here.