The government is to expand the Dungavel immigration detention centre in Scotland with a 43-bed unit for single males.
Campsfield House, near Oxford, will be expanded and others are being refurbished.
A new detention centre, Colnbrook, near Heathrow, will open in August.
Bicester residents will challenge the decision of John Prescott, deputy prime minister, to override opposition to a new asylum accommodation facility in the Oxfordshire town.
References: The Guardian 17/03/04 page 10