Life of luxury: Inside the lavish British migrant removal centre that offers bingo & yoga
IT MAY sound like a luxury hotel, with its yoga sessions, lavish parties and beauty treatments – but this is an immigration removal centre in Britain.
Inspectors visiting the Yarl's Wood centre in Bedfordshire were pleasantly surprised after activists branded the facility a "prison camp" and called for it to be shut down.
The Independent Monitoring Board watchdog found staff offered a "varied timetable of activities throughout the week" for detainees.
This included football sessions and cricket matches in the Sports Hall – as well as bingo, yoga and zumba dance classes.
Those held at the facility can even join the Music in Detention choir or dine at the centre's Cafe Central – which serves a wide range of food for the 50 nationalities who are detained.
There is also an "extremely popular" hair salon, where detainees can get beauty treatments.
The inspectors said: "Among the Asian population threading and hair colour treatments are the most popular, while African and Caribbean detainees tend to opt for hair extensions."
It has been estimated that a year-long stay at Yarl's Wood costs the taxpayer as much as £30,000.
The shocking lavish lifestyle of immigration detainees held at the centre was laid bare amid worrying revelations that two-thirds of the centre's population were allowed to walk free last year.
Of the 4,635 people who were detained, just a third were sent home.
Yarl's Wood is mainly used to hold pregnant women, foreign criminals and the mentally ill.