Asylum seeker cried in jail

Protesters gathered outside the prison

A Turkish asylum seeker has described how he cried when he was put in Cardiff prison following disturbances at an immigration removal centre.

More than 100 immigration detainees are being held in prisons in the UK, because there is no alternative.

Kurdish asylum seeker Mehmet Tutan was held in the remand wing for 27 days, even though he did not face charges.

The Home Office said it was "a necessary response to an exceptional situation", and not routine.

Mr Tutan was one of nine men transferred to Cardiff's Victorian jail following disturbances at Harmondsworth Immigration and Removal Centre, near Heathrow.

The centre was temporarily closed in July, and should reopen in October.

The 400 or so detainees were moved to other immigration sites and prisons.

Mr Tutan has since been released by a court while his second asylum application is being considered, and is now back home in Sheffield.

He told the BBC that he and the other detainees were told they were being taken to "a nice place", but the reality was very different.

"I cried," he said. "I was very sad."

Mr Tutan said his cell in the remand wing contained a toilet and claimed he had to eat his meals in the same room.

Some asylum seekers have been held at Cardiff prison

He also claimed had to spend 23 hours a day in his cell - but the Home Office disputed this, saying the average out-of-cell time was 10 hours a day during the week, and seven hours a day at weekends.

In a statement, the Home Office said leisure and exercise regimes varied from prison to prison, but immigration detainees were treated as remand prisoners.

At Cardiff they were entitled to four-hour-long visits per week, in addition to legal visits.

There was a mandatory hour of exercise, gym sessions five times a week, and the detainees had access to a library containing books in their native languages.

Mr Tutan told the BBC that the accommodation at Cardiff was very different to that at Harmondsworth.

"Harmondsworth is always open," he explained. "One can go any time outside and so some shopping in the canteen and talk to someone if you want to.

"When I was in prison, after one or two days, I thought, 'I'll never get out of here'. I thought, 'I'll stay here forever'. You think negative."

All of the detainees were removed from Harmondsworth

The Home Office said it had not changed its policy on accommodation for asylum seekers.

"The need to move detainees who were at Harmondsworth to prisons was a necessary response to an exceptional situation," a spokesman said.

"However, this does not detract from the general position that we will not make routine use of prison accommodation to hold immigration detainees.

"We adopted this position at the end of 2001 and have no plans to move away from it.

"The vast majority of individuals transferred from Harmondsworth to prisons will be moved back to the removal estate as soon as suitable places are available."

Meanwhile, Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan visited the six remaining asylum seekers in Cardiff Prison on Thursday and has called for them to be released.

Mrs Morgan said: "They have committed no crime and find it hard to believe that they are being held in cells for most of the hours of the day."

The detainees are from Sudan, Senegal, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Mali and Nigeria.

One of them has been in the UK for 14 years.

Welsh Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart has visited both Cardiff and Parc prisons and expressed her concerns at asylum seekers being detained there.