Migrant camp delayed after legal action by Tory council

Former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse was due to receive its first 60 asylum seekers by Tuesday

Linton-on-ouse
Local villagers gather to demonstrate against the asylum processing centre in Linton-On-Ouse Credit: Martin Pope/Getty Images

A proposed migrant camp in north Yorkshire - dubbed Guantanamo-on-Ouse - has been delayed after a Tory council began legal action to block it.

The former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse was due to receive its first 60 asylum seekers by Tuesday, but Home Office sources admitted it had been delayed amid a local revolt over the plans to turn it into a camp holding up to 1,500 migrants.

It has been opposed by not only the villagers - who will be outnumbered two-to-one by the asylum seekers - but also Kevin Hollinrake, the local Conservative MP, and Tory-controlled Hambleton council whose chief executive has begun legal proceedings with a pre-action letter to the Home Office.

They claim that it is inappropriate to place the camp in the heart of a small village and say the Government has failed to follow proper consultation procedures in its rush to set it up. It was announced on the same day as Boris Johnson unveiled plans to send migrants to Rwanda.

'No final decision has been taken by ministers'

Hopes that the scheme could be scrapped have been raised by a Home Office admission in a letter to Justin Ives, the Hambleton chief executive, that "no final decision has been taken by ministers to accommodate asylum seekers at RAF Linton".

Mr Hollinrake raised the plans with Mr Johnson at last week’s meeting of the Tories’ 1922 backbench committee, where he said the Prime Minister had promised "he would look at it again".

"I don’t think there is any way of mitigating the impact. It is completely unsuitable to have 1,500 young single men at the heart of a community who are free to come and go and are not subject to any formal curfew restrictions," said the MP.

"It is not as if all these people are malignant. It is a fact that in any cohort of 1,500 people you are going to have some dodgy characters. That’s what the village is afraid of."

Linton-on-Ouse
The former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse was due to receive its first 60 asylum seekers by Tuesday Credit: Martin Pope/Getty Images

Linton-on-Ouse RAF base - where Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge trained - is the first of a network of proposed asylum camps to help meet the Government’s pledge to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers, which is costing the Government £4.7 million a day.

It comes as the Home Office is preparing to issue the first removal notices to migrants who will be flown on a one way ticket to Rwanda where they will claim asylum. Up to 100 have already been detained after being issued with notices of intent.

The Home Office has told lawyers mounting a legal challenge to the plans that they will not remove any until after June 6, giving them only a week in which to seek judicial review to block the flights.

A Home Office spokesman said: “As we continue to work on the plan for the asylum reception centre at Linton-on-Ouse, which will be as self-sufficient as possible, we continue to listen to community feedback.

“We maintain the site is urgently needed to provide essential asylum accommodation and will assist as we end the use of asylum seekers using hotels which are costing the taxpayer almost £5million a day.

“Our New Plan for Immigration will fix the UK’s broken asylum system, allowing us to support those in genuine need while preventing abuse of the system and deterring illegal entry to the UK.”

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