THE Home Office has been blamed for an “utterly preventable” outbreak of Covid-19 at an immigration removal centre near Gatwick. 

Three wings at Brook House have been put into isolation, according to a notice seen by the Morning Star, which was distributed to detainees this morning.

Shockingly, the notice from contractor Serco, which runs the removal centre, suggests that people may still be transferred there despite the outbreak.

It states that new detainees will be housed in two other wings “that are at present not in isolation, and are currently running a normal regime.” 

The outbreak comes after dozens of asylum-seekers were packed into Brook House in preparation for mass removals on three charter flights to EU states this week. The removals are part of the government’s deportation drive of asylum-seekers who crossed the Channel in small boats. 

It’s understood that removals of asylum-seekers on all three flights were halted following human rights and trafficking claims and the Covid outbreak. 

Campaigners said the recent influx of people into the centre was “bound to lead to Covid-19 infections.” Earlier this year detention centres had been virtually emptied due to warnings that such sites provided ideal incubation conditions for the spread of the virus. 

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonia Sceats said: “The outbreak of Covid at Brook House was completely preventable, and utterly predictable. 

“Let this be a wake-up call for the Home Office – nobody should be detained for immigration purposes during a global pandemic.”

It comes after a man who was deported to Jamaica on a Home Office charter flight last week tested positive for coronavirus. 

Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley, whose organisation has been supporting 90 detainees facing removal, said that the Home Office had recently reopened Colnbrook removal centre near Heathrow, because Brook House had “overflowed.” 

Ms Moseley told the Morning Star: “It’s absolutely clear that the whole objective is to deport as many people as possible, and that shouldn’t be the objective, it should be to assess people’s claims fairly and see who needs asylum.

“In this rush to deport people they’ve ignored Covid concerns and now this has happened.”

Karen Doyle, a campaigner with migrant rights group Movement for Justice said the decision to fill up centres again “shows the complete disregard for peoples’ lives, their health, and their wellbeing by the Home Office in a drive, a political drive, to deport as many people as possible before January 1.

“It’s putting politics ahead of people’s health which has been the story of this government’s response to Covid since the start.”

The Home Office has been accused of rushing removals of asylum seekers before Brexit — after which it can no longer use EU laws to return people to European countries.

On Tuesday, asylum-seekers were due to be returned on a flight to Belgium, Germany and Poland. But the flight only stopped in Poland, according to flight data, where Polish nationals were due to be returned. Similarly, charter flights to Germany, Austria and Lithuania on Wednesday only made one stop, returning Lithuanian nationals. 

A flight on Thursday morning was cancelled completely as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

Those taken off the flight included victims of trafficking and people with medical conditions, Ms Moseley said. 

The Home Office was approached for comment.