Entrance to Oakington Immigration Reception Centre - geograph

Oakington Immigration Reception Centre was an

immigration detention Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a vi ...

centre located in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

run by

UK Visas and Immigration UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is a division of the Home Office responsible for the United Kingdom's visa system. It was formed in 2013 from the section of the UK Border Agency that had administered the visa system. History The then Home Secret ...

. Originally a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

RAF Oakington Royal Air Force Oakington or more simply RAF Oakington was a Royal Air Force station located north of Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England and north-west of Cambridge. History Second World War Construction was started in 1939, but was affect ...

was used by

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

flying

Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during t ...

aircraft. The base contracted after the war, and much evidence of its former presence is visible in farmland surrounding the current perimeter. It was used for flight training until the 1970s, and then became a

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

. Taken over by the Home Office, it was converted to an immigration centre; in 2000 the site held and processed around 450 political asylum seekers, and between opening and mid-2005 had processed over 40,000 people who had been arrested for entering the country illegally. The site was then operated the, then,

UK Border Agency The UK Border Agency (UKBA) was the border control agency of the Government of the United Kingdom and part of the Home Office that was superseded by UK Visas and Immigration, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement in April 2013. It was forme ...

's seven-day fast-track assessment process, which involved a series of interviews over an average of 14 days to determine the validity of a case. If refused asylum, detainees were removed from the country. If they gained asylum, they were released into the community. The centre received repeated criticisms from the Prisons Inspector and from others regarding safety of children and adults detained there. In January 2008, it was announced that the centre was the second worst in the country. The site was acquired in March 2006 by

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

for a new town called

Northstowe Northstowe is a new town that will eventually have up to 10,000 homes, with an anticipated population of 24,400 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK. On 1 April 2021 Northstowe became a civil parish, the parish was formed from Longstanton and Oakingt ...

. The Centre was due to close in 2006 but actually closed in November 2010."Oakington immigration centre's future plans"
BBC News, 2010-11-11, accessed 2011-07-14

References

{{Immigration detention centres in the U.K. Immigration detention centres and prisons in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Cambridgeshire