<p>Created by: startx.</p> <p>maqui: added pic</p> true true <p><br /><br />Arora Management Services Ltd has applied to Crawley Borough Council for<br />planning permission to turn its four-star Mercure Gatwick Hotel into an immigration<br />detention centre. If the planning permission is granted, the hotel will be converted<br />into a secure prison and the 245 bedrooms into single and family cells.<br /><br />Like other private companies that run privatised detention centres across the<br />country, Arora is trying to sell its plan by arguing that locating<br />detention centres at airports would make deportations easier and less costly for the<br />government.<br /><br />Gatwick airport already has two detention centres: Tinsley House, which<br />can hold 125 male and female detainees, and the newly opened Brook House, which can<br />hold 426. Both are run by private security company G4S.<br /><br />One of the protesters Dan Rosenthal said: "We are disgusted by these plans<br />to make yet another detention centre. Already the UK's immigration detention<br />centres hold thousands of people every year, sometimes for months or even years at a<br />time, whilst the government tries to deport them to so-called safe countries such as<br />Afghanistan and Iraq. This is just another example of cynical, profit-driven<br />opportunism of big companies."<br /><br />Email: <a href="https://auk.riseup.net/sm/src/compose.php?send_to=noborderslondon%40riseup.net">noborderslondon@riseup.net</a><br /><br /><br />1. The planning application CR/2009/0421/COU, with all the relevant<br />documents, can be viewed on the Crawley Borough Council website (follow this link to open<br />the page:<br /><a href="http://tinyurl.com/AroraApp">http://tinyurl.com/AroraApp</a>).<br /><br />2. Established in 1999, Arora International Hotels is one of the UK's fastest<br />growing privately owned hotel companies, with six luxury hotels in and around<br />Heathrow and Gatwick airports and one in Manchester city centre. For more<br />details about the hotels and their locations, see Arora's website at<br /><a href="http://www.arorainternational.com/">http://www.arorainternational.com</a>.<br /><br />3. The first protest against Arora/Mercure took place on 6th November,<br />report here: <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/439285.html">http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/439285.html</a><br /><br />3. London No Borders, part of the No Borders UK network, struggles against<br />all immigration controls and for the freedom of movement and equal rights for<br />all. In September 2007, No Borders UK organised a No Border Camp near Gatwick<br />airport in protest at plans to open a new detention centre there. Brook House was<br />subsequently opened in March 2009. For more information about No Borders London, see<br /><a href="http://london.noborders.org.uk/">http://london.noborders.org.uk</a>.<br /><br /></p> 3 noborderslondon@riseup.net 2009-11-05T19:11:28+00:00 2911 promoted one of noborders false

<p>Campaigners hold second protest against plans to turn Gatwick hotel into a<br />detention centre<br /><br />5th November 2009, 7pm<br /><br />* Arora Management Services Ltd plans to turn its four-star Mercure<br />Gatwick hotel into an immigration detention centre.<br /><br />* Campaigners vow to target Arora and Mercure until the plans are dropped.<br /><br />Anti-detention campaigners are currently holding a peaceful protest at the<br />Mercure London City Bankside Hotel (71-79 Southwark Street SE1 0JA)<br />against what they describe as the hotel company's "cynical, profit-driven<br />opportunism." They are distributing leaflets to staff and guests,<br />demanding that Mercure/Arora drops its plans to turn one of its hotels<br />into an immigration prison.</p>

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