Because there is more profit in having guests who can't leave!
Arora plans to increase its profits by locking up innocent and vulnerable people

Driven by what appears to be a decline in business, Arora Management Services Ltd has applied to the Crawley Borough Council for permission to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick airport, Mercure, into an immigration detention centre. If the planning permission is granted, the hotel will be converted into a secure prison and the 245 bedrooms into single and family cells.

Thousands of innocent migrants are locked up in immigration prisons across the country for prolonged periods of time pending their forcible deportation. With no right to automatic bail and no access to adequate legal representation, they are treated like criminals when their only 'crime' is seeking safety or a better life.

Gatwick airport already has two detention centres: Tinsley House, which can hold 125 male and female detainees, and the newly opened Brook House, which can hold 426. Both are run by security company G4S.

Arora is trying to sell its plan by arguing that locating detention centres at airports would make deportations easier and less costly for the government. In reality, this keeps detention and deportations out of the public gaze as airports are subject to special bylaws and accessing them -for example, by visitors and campaigners- is much harder.

By protesting to the hotel management and/or the Crawley Council you can help stop this cynical, profit-driven opportunism. More details at  http://london.noborders.org.uk.