Statement on Arora International Hotels Ltd. Planning Application No. CR/2009/0421/COU

PRESS RELEASE ***FOR IMMEDIATE DISSEMINATION***

STARTS:

The attached statement in opposition to the planning application by Arora International Hotels Ltd. for a change of use of the Mercure Hotel, Povey Cross Road, Crawley, allowing its conversion into an Immigration Removal Centre, has been sent to all 37 Crawley Borough Councillors and to Laura Moffet MP for Crawley. The nature of this planning application and the exisitng structure means that any resulting detention centre could only be used to hold families and children.

It calls on the Council planning committee to reject the application, citing the widespread opposition to the continued routine administrative detention of minors in the UK's immigration prisons. These include the adverse physical and psychological effects such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder highlighted in Professor Victor Carrion's work amongst others; the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of General Practitioners and the Faculty of Public Health in a joint briefing paper entitled 'Significant Harm - the effects of administrative detention on the health of children, young people and their families' (also endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing); the Home Affairs Select Committee, in a report entitled 'The Detention of Children in the Immigration System'; The Children's Commissioner for England Alan Aynsley-Green in ‘The Arrest and Detention of Children Subject to Immigration Control’ and by Refugee and Migrant Justice, formerly the Refugee Legal Centre, in ‘Does Every Child Matter?’

The statement, as well as being endorsed by a number of individuals and organisations with interests in the field of immigration detention, has prompted a number of others, including Des Turner MP and SERTUC (the TUC in London, the South East and Eastern Region), to object to the application on their own behalf.*

The planning application has also attracted widespread local and national opposition including demonstrations at Arora International hotels around the country. Just last Monday (11 January), protesters leafleted customers and staff at the Mercure Hotel itself. A number of organisations, including No Borders Brighton and London NoBorders will also be demonstrating outside the planning meeting itself on 25 January.

* We are currently awaiting confirmation of their permission to attached their signatures to the statement.

ENDS.

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO ARORA INTERNATIONAL HOTELS LTD. PLANNING APPLICATION NO. CR/2009/0421/COU

The Arora International Hotels chain wishes to convert the 254-bed Mercure Hotel in Povey Cross Road, Crawley into an Immigration Removal Centre. Due to the nature of the existing building and the site it occupies, it could only be converted into a detention centre to house families and children.

The detention of children in immigration prisons has long been condemned by authorities around the globe for the adverse physical and psychological effects it has on them. In this country these have included the Children's Commissioner for England Sir Alan Aynsley-Green, Refugee and Migrant Justice (formerly the Refugee Legal Centre) and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to name but a few.

Just this month (December 2009), the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of General Practitioners and the Faculty of Public Health (and endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing) published a briefing paper entitled
'Significant Harm - the effects of administrative detention on the health of children, young people and their families', which declared that the administrative detention of children is unacceptable and should cease without delay.

Gatwick is already the site of two Immigration Removal Centres, Tinsley House and Brook House, both the source of recent criticism. In particular, Tinsley House is the subject of a highly critical report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers, regarding an unannounced short follow-up inspection on 13-15 July 2009, published on 18 December. The report described the arrangements for children at Tinsley House as "wholly unacceptable" and criticised the "prison-like culture" and the "limited access to fresh air" of the children imprisoned there.

We the undersigned call on Arora International Hotels to unconditionally withdraw their application for change of use of Mercure Hotel and, failing that, for Crawley Borough Council to reject the application at the earliest opportunity. Imprisoning children for the 'crime' of being a migrant is totally unacceptable and nobody should encourage others to profit from the activity, whatever the situation.

signatures:

Dr Caroline Lucas - Green Party MEP for SE England
Ben Duncan Brighton and Hove City Councillor, Green Party parliamentary candidate & member of Sussex Police Authority
Tony Greenstein - Brighton & Hove Unemployed Workers Centre
Helen M. Hintjens - Senior Lecturer in Development and Social Justice, International Institute of Social Studies, University of Rotterdam
No Borders Brighton
London No Borders
Manchester No Borders
No Borders South Wales
No One Is Illegal
Barbed Wire Britain Network to End Refugee and Migrant
Detention
Communities Of Resistance (CoRe)
Fight Racism Fight Imperialism
Detainee Solidarity London
Stop Deportations Network
Kent Refugee Help
Migrant English Project (Brighton)
Long Journey Home
Ethnic Arts Group
Cardiff Refugee & Asylum Seeker Welcome
Cardiff STAR
Cardiff People & Planet
Cardiff University Green Party

For further details contact: 07854167547

Notes to Editors:

[1] The planning application and relevant details can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/AroraApp

[2] Established in 1999, Arora International Hotels is one of the UK's fastest growing privately owned hotel companies, with six luxury hotels in and around Heathrow and Gatwick airports and one in Manchester city centre. For details of the Mercure, see: http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-7059-mercure-london-gatwick-airport/inde...

[3] For more background on the application, see: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=3432

[4] Details of actions against Arora Hotels International see: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/439285.html, http://london.noborders.org.uk/node/232, http://london.noborders.org.uk/node/240, http://nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/2009/11/arora-hotels-one-for-cit...,
http://nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/2010/01/continued-opposition-to-...
http://nobordersbrighton.blogspot.com/2010/01/mercure-hotel-protest-stat...
http://nobordersbrighton.blogspot.com/2010/01/mercure-hotel-demonstratio...
http://nobordersbrighton.blogspot.com/2010/01/demonstration-at-mercure-h...

[5] The medical effects of imprisoning children are well documented and were recently highlighted in a briefing paper 'Significant Harm - the effects of administrative detention on the health of children, young people and their families' published jointly by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of General Practitioners and the Faculty of Public Health (also endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing). See: http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/images/stories/texts/significant%20harm...
See also: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2009/december/carrion.html
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2009/december/carrion.html
http://refugee-migrant-justice.org.uk/downloads/RMJ_Doeseverychild_Repor...

[6] No Borders Brighton, part of the No Borders UK network, struggles against all immigration controls and for the freedom of movement and equal rights for all. In September 2007, the No Borders UK network organised a No Border Camp near Gatwick airport in protest at plans to open a new detention centre there. Brook House was subsequently opened in March 2009, joining Tinsley House, a dedicated families and children facility, as the second detention centre in the local area.

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