AN AMBITIOUS and unachievable government policy to deport thousands of failed asylum-seekers led to the riot at the Yarl’s Wood detention centre that caused £38 million in damage, an official inquiry concluded yesterday.

The centre, swept by fire after the riot in February 2002, was poorly designed, rushed through and unfit for its purpose, the report said. The riot could have been prevented if an incident involving a woman inmate had been better handled. Firmer action could have stopped it escalating.

Stephen Shaw, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, said the findings in his 450-page report “make uncomfortable reading . . . This is a tale that offers scant comfort.”

Yarl’s Wood was opened late in 2001 by Group 4 as a holding centre for 900 failed asylum-seekers due to be deported. It was built as part of a policy to remove 30,000 failed asyslum-seekers and illegal immigrants.

The incident which triggered the riot was the restraint of a middle-aged woman who had been presenting problems for staff. Male inmates grew incensed and began to rampage through the buildings, eventually setting fire to the centre.

By the time the disorder and fires were under control the next morning, half of the £90 million centre had been destroyed. Mr Shaw agreed with one MP’s comment that the riot had been “a hair’s breadth from a tragedy”.

Overall, he concluded: “The targets underpinning the project were unachievable, the project was conducted under unreasonable time constraints, the design of the building was poor in terms of construction, materials and layout.

The removals plan was “an ambitious and, as things turned out, an unachievable policy. It required the commissioning of a building like no other and at a record pace.”

Mr Shaw said: “The building was not fit for its intended purpose.”

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, told the Commons yesterday: “There have been many improvements to the management of the detention system since these events took place but I am determined that we should learn any further lessons of these very serious events.”

Last night Group 4 said many of the report’s recommendations had already been implemented after the company’s own inquiry.

Mr Shaw’s team spent two weeks at the reopened Yarl’s Wood and concluded that the atmosphere was very relaxed and mostly good-natured.

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