Newham residents staged a protest against Home Office plans to turn Warehouse K in the Royal Docks into a migrant detention centre last month.

Warehouse K, a Grade 2 listed building next to the ExCeL exhibition centre, sits just north of the Royal Docks in Custom House. Part of it is converted to flats selling at three quarters of a million and the Home Office already has planning permission for office space but has plans to re-submit an application for a change of use to allow it to use the premises for a reporting centre this month.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “The proposed site in Royal Victoria Docks is not a detention centre and it is completely wrong to say that we are targeting people for detention and deportation.”

The Home Office proposal is for office space, interview rooms and a short-term temporary holding facility, with capacity for a maximum of 35 people. The Reporting Centre will be open to the public Monday – Friday while the office accommodation and facilities will be open for staff use 24/7 and will be fully secure at all times.

The Home Office is planning to publish feedback from a recent consultation. The plans have sparked opposition among residents some of whom staged a protest outside the building, led by the group Stand Up to Racism. Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz described the Home Office’s intention to resubmit a planning application for a change of use to a detention centre as “an affront to our diverse community.”

Warehouse K was built on the Royal Docks in 1850 and is a Grade 2 listed building. It was owned in Victorian times by companies enriched from the slave trade and was used to store tobacco farmed by slaves.

The irony is not lost on local residents. Jessica Okwuonu said:

Something that represents such hate and anger has no place in a community with values like ours. No matter your colour or creed, you’ll find friends and family here in Newham. Today we tell them we will stop this centre; tomorrow we will teach them how diversity works and how easy it is to love your neighbour.

Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, sent a message of support to the protestors. She said: “These are extremely worrying times for our communities, with the increasing threat of the virus, terrible numbers of job losses, and, I fear, increases in the already appalling poverty rate coming our way.

“The last thing we need here in Newham when we are under such pressure is a new extension of the hostile environment causing anxiety to local people.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.