Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Yarl''s Wood Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention centre at Milton Ernest in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire. It opened on 19 November 2001 and was built to hold up to 900 detainees making it the largest immigration detention centre in Europe at the time. Since opening in 2001 has been dogged by controversy. It currently holds people who are in the United Kingdom illegally, and are awaiting deportation to their rightful country. In February 2002, it was gutted through a fire, reopening in September 2003. Throughout its operational period a number of hunger strikes and riots have occurred there. In September 2005 Manuel Bravo from Angola killed himself while being held in detention with his 13 year old son. Entrance to the detention centre. It is operated by the Serco Group.