By Dominic Casciani Community affairs, BBC News

Yarl's Wood: Damage valued at �38m

Prisons ombudsman Stephen Shaw said events at Yarl's Wood detention centre were "on a scale never before seen", other than in the worst prison riots.

He said the government had rushed the centre into operation to its meet asylum removal targets. The February 2002 fire destroyed half of the �100m centre just three months after its opening.

Yarl's Wood, which opened in November 2001, aimed to hold up to 900 detainees at a time and massively speed up the deporting of failed asylum applicants.

The government had set a target of removing 30,000 a year, a target that was later dropped because it had proved to be unachievable.

But in his report, Mr Shaw concludes that neither Yarl's Wood nor its sister centre, Harmondsworth, near Heathrow, were "fit for purpose".

Mr Shaw criticised both the design of the centre and its management policies, saying that a combination of factors led to the destruction of the centre, a massive blow to government policy.

The centre was essentially too large and the Immigration Service had "no experience" of managing anything of this scale.

Minor incident

The trouble began when staff restrained a female detainee who had allegedly been causing trouble. That sparked a furious reaction from other detainees and events quickly spiralled out of control as detainees rioted.

In brief, the story of Yarl's Wood is of an ambitious and, as things turned out, unachievable policy for the removal of failed asylum-seekers Stephen Shaw, Prisons Ombudsman

"I think that incident [which sparked the rioting] was poorly handled, but even had it been dealt with in exemplary fashion, that might just have postponed the inevitable," he said.

"As they were designed and constructed, neither Yarl's Wood nor its sister removal centre, Harmondsworth, were fit for purpose."

Mr Shaw said that had the destruction not unfolded at Yarl's Wood, there was the potential for it to happen at Harmondsworth.

In July this year, that centre itself was in fact closed after a major disturbance following the apparent suicide of an asylum-seeker.

Policy decisions

"The fire and disturbance at Yarl's Wood in February 2002 were on a scale never before seen in a place of immigration detention and of a magnitude rarely experienced by any institution," said Mr Shaw.

YARL'S WOOD TIMELINE 2000: 30,000 removals target set Nov 01: Yarl's Wood opens Feb 02: Destroyed by fire Aug 02: Removal target dropped Aug 03: Pair jailed over violence Sept 03: Re-opens Apr 04: Report brands some staff racist Sept 04: PM sets new removals target

"In brief, the story of Yarl's Wood is of an ambitious and, as things turned out, unachievable policy for the removal of failed asylum-seekers.

"This meant that a building unlike any that had gone before had to be commissioned and constructed at a record pace."

Mr Shaw said he hoped his report would however put an end to false allegations that detainees were killed in the fire and Group 4 staff refused to allow firefighters to enter and locked in detainees.

Mr Shaw said the bravery of individual members of the Prison Service and Group 4 staff had gone unacknowledged. He also praised detainees who rescued staff who had become trapped by the fire.

"If there is consolation to be found, it is in the fact that - despite speculation to the contrary - nobody lost their life at Yarl's Wood," he said.

"Unhappily, a serious sexual assault almost certainly occurred during the disturbance, but physical injuries were otherwise few and minor. Had the disturbance been managed in a different way, there can be no certainty that this would have been the outcome."

'Greater realism'

But Mr Shaw added there needed to be "greater realism" as to the "necessarily coercive nature of immigration detention and removal" for the policy to work.

The immigration system should also demonstrate absolute fairness and legitimacy in immigration decision-making.

Furthermore, the onus remained on the immigration service and its contractors to ensure that removal centres were properly run with both good relations and high levels of security, he said.

The report comes as the government continues to expand its detention of failed asylum seekers. Both Yarl's Wood and Harmondsworth have reopened and a brand new centre, Colnbrook, also near Heathrow, has just started taking detainees.

Mr Shaw said: "It is worth remembering that, to all intents and purposes, the [detention] estate barely existed ten years ago. The detention centre rules are just three years old, and operating standards are only now being rolled out.