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 | | Friday, 22 February, 2002, 07:54 GMT Asylum seekers still at large  The escapees climbed a perimeter fence Police are continuing to hunt for nine asylum seekers who escaped from an immigration detention centre near Heathrow airport on Wednesday night. Scotland Yard said the men smashed a second-floor window and then scaled perimeter fences at the Harmondsworth Centre at West Drayton, but so far none of them have been caught. A police spokesman said officers searched the area, backed up by dog handlers and a police helicopter, but found no trace of the escapees. He added: "We are liaising with the Immigration Service and continuing to make enquiries to trace the escapees." Fire and riot A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed the nine included two Indians, two Algerians, two Jamaicans, a Cameroonian, a Moldovan and a Romanian. Six of the escapees were failed asylum seekers due to be returned to their home country, two had been refused entry and one had overstayed his visit in Britain. The ecape follows a fire and riot at another detention centre at Yarl's Wood, Bedfordshire, a week ago in which 25 detainees escaped.
The fire caused �38m damage to the newly-built centre. The 25 escapees from Yarl's Wood are still on the run. Questions have been raised about the lack of sprinklers at the �100m centre, the largest of its kind in Europe. None of the UK's detention centres are equipped with sprinkler systems. The Harmondsworth centre was rebuilt on an existing site last year to house more than six times as many people. It opened in October and can hold 550 people, including failed asylum seekers who are awaiting deportation and others detained for immigration offences. The complex is run by UK Detention Services (UKDS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of French conglomerate Sodexho Alliance, which won an eight-year contract from the Home Office. Harmondsworth offers far better facilities than most prisons including, health care units, chapel, mosque, library, shop and classrooms. UKDS and the Immigration Service will carry out investigations into the breakout. | |
 
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