Reverend Inderjit Bhogal: "They are no threat to society"

A former refugee originally from Kenya, Mr Bhogal has made a series of visits to asylum seeker detention centres in the UK over the last 18 months and said he was submitting a report on his findings to the Home Office.

He said the men were being held "as aliens or illegal detainees" in "single unit cells with, thick steel plate doors, and windows that are opaque and don't open fully".

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster on Thursday he said: "They are locked up for up to 16 hours a day. They are allowed no incoming phone calls and they have very little facility for outgoing phone-calls."

"They are people whose only crime is that they don't have an immigration status. It is not a good way to hold people who are no danger to society.

'Contribution'

"It goes against all conventions to hold asylum seekers, or those who are immigrants, in a prison or in prison-like conditions. If they have to be held, I feel they should be in a warden-assisted hostel," he said.

"Some of them are in total shock to find themselves in a prison. Some of them are not in a good condition as far as their health is concerned and all of them are desperately lonely, and long for association with other people."

Mr Bhogal added that the asylum seekers wanted to make a contribution to society, rather than being a drain.

He said: "Most refugees come here to find work. They could be making a contribution to the economy, rather they being a drain on the economy and the taxpayer and being looked after in a prison."

The Northern Ireland Prison Service has insisted the foreign nationals are in a more liberal regime than either sentenced or remand prisoners.

The Home Office has also defended its position. A statement said: "Because of the high level of absconding, it is regrettably necessary to detain some people under immigration powers in order to facilitate their removal.

"It has been necessary to detain these people in prisons in Northern Ireland because the Immigration Service has no dedicated detention centres there."