Oakington Office

Address:

Oakington Barracks

Longstanton

Nr Cambridge CB4 5EJ

Telephone: 01954 783300 (please telephone between 10.00am and 4.00pm)

Fax: 01954 789505

Electronic mail for general enquiries. We do not offer advice via electronic mail:

[email protected]

Services Offered

Oakington Reception Centre is a facility run by the Immigration and Nationality Department (IND) of the Home Office to process asylum claims deemed to be 'straightforward' on the basis of the nationality of the claimant. Applicants, including families, are detained at the centre pending a decision on their claim. Claims are normally decided with a 7-10 day framework after which the applicants are either detained further in another facility or 'dispersed' to await their appeal against refusal of their asylum claim. We now have over 75 staff members approximately 55 of whom are engaged in 'front line' services dealing directly with clients.

Asylum applicants detained at Oakington have mostly just arrived in the United Kingdom. They are given a 'screening' interview at the port of entry and if space is available and they meet the Oakington admissions criteria, are sent here within a very short space of time. Other applicants are sent from the main Home Office application centre in Croydon when they voluntarily register their claims. Where an applicant has no legal representative on arrival at Oakington they will be offered the services of RLC or another on site legal charity. Our caseworkers would normally see a client on their second day after arrival and would conduct a full legal interview ('taking instructions') and also prepare the client for their full asylum interview with the Home Office which takes place on the third day. Following the asylum interview, which the caseworker will attend with the client, we are given 48 hours to make written representations in support of the client's claim. These are usually very detailed and contain a full account of the claim, legal argument and information concerning the applicant's country of origin. Once these are submitted a decision is made on the claim - normally within a further 24 hours. Following the decision the client will leave Oakington as described above.