A detention centre capable of housing up to 20 failed asylum seekers in Northern Ireland could be up and running by next autumn.

The establishment of a facility is one of the top recommendations to emerge from the recent review of police custody suites by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate.

According to the CJI report, failed asylum seekers were being held in police cells for up to five days due to a lack of facilities in Northern Ireland.

Inspectors said this arrangement was not suitable for detainees and recommended for police and the UK Border Agency to find an alternative.

The report says representatives from the UKBA were looking at the possibility of adapting a “mothballed PSNI custody suite” for immigration use.

The Belfast Telegraph understands immigration officials have been looking at an old police station in Larne. But those plans have been delayed despite the agency opening its new UK Border Agency Public Office — housing immigration enforcement officers — near Forestside later this month.

The office will be used for a variety of Border Agency “business” such as visa applications. But it will also be used for asylum interviews and as a base for enforcement officers who will be tasked with finding and removing illegal immigrants.

A spokeswoman from the UKBA would not confirm where the detention facility would be located or how many people it would be capable of holding. However she did confirm the agency was planning to open a holding centre.

“Discussions are on-going to acquire an appropriate short-term holding facility in Northern Ireland which we hope will be open in the near future,” she said. “We will continue to use police cells for the timebeing for short-term custody of appropriate immigration offenders — very few are held for five days.”

According to the CJI report, funding for an appropriate detention centre remains to be the major stumbling block. But it has given the PSNI and the UKBA a target of September 2010 for the issue to be resolved.

In the meantime failed asylum seekers will continue to be held in police cells

Law Centre director Les Allamby said there were ongoing concerns about the detention of failed asylum seekers.

“The Law Centre does welcome the re-opening of a public inquiry office in Belfast which is long overdue. One was closed here about seven or eight years ago,” he said.

“We remain concerned, however, at the arrangements for detention of asylum seekers.

“We need to end unannounced raids, holding detainees who have committed no criminal offence in police cells, and transferring people to detention facilities in Scotland.

“We need a 21st century solution that develops alternatives to detention while asylum claims are being determined by the authorities.”

Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty International said the human rights body was more concerned with the asylum system as a whole.

“Our main problem is around the asylum system — that it is still not fit for purpose,” he claimed.