AN Immigration Removal Centre, due to open near Heathrow airport this summer, is looking for volunteers to help maintain the human rights of its 330 detainees.

The Colnbrook Removal Centre will be completed in August and is situated next to the existing Harmondsworth centre. This will allow more than 800 immigrants to be held in the area to await deportation back to their country of origin.

Both Colnbrook and Harmondsworth are in need of volunteers to join their Independent Monitoring Board (IMB). Such boards act as a watch dog on behalf of the Home Office by overseeing conditions in the centres and have a valuable role in ensuring that detainees are being cared for decently and with humanity.

The Times was invited on a tour of Harmondsworth, currently undergoing renovation work to allow for housing immigrants displaced by the fire at Yarls Wood in 2002.

Security at the centre is tight and reporters were searched and asked to leave all belongings, bar pen and paper, in a locked box at the reception. A siren was set off by a member of staff who had forgotten to remove their centre keys before passing through the double door lock and notices adorn the corridors to warn against possible escape risks.

It is here that the work of the IMB begins, as chairwoman Margaret Johnson explained: "We visit all the people here. We monitor all the areas of the centre. It is important to ensure that the building is clean and safe but it is more important to ensure that the people are being treated fairly."

Detainees are kept in one of three types of accommodation. Normal location houses the vast majority of immigrants, where they are entitled to a variety of privileges. Secure accommodation houses those who are yet to be assessed and have previous records of misbehaviour at other centres as well as those who have committed minor infringements since arriving. Finally segregated accommodation is for those who are proving particularly unruly. Here, exercise and dining are carried out away from the other inhabitants of the centre. To be placed in such accommodation for a lengthy amount of time involves discussions with the Secretary of State. Mrs Johnson added: "It is important that anyone who is removed is aware of why they have been removed and that they are kept in humane conditions." Only six such rooms are available at the centre and only one was occupied on our visit.

With over 40 different nationalities present at the centre at any one time it is important that all cultures are catered for. The centre has a multi-faith area with a separate Mosque, due to the large number of Islamic immigrants at the centre.

Inhabitants can make use of a library, a computer room, a gym, a football pitch and an arts and crafts centre. They can also have their haircut at the centre's salon and buy items from the various confectionery shops, whose profits are pumped back into the centre.

But despite all these luxuries' it is impossible to escape the fact that every corridor has large locks and bolts on its doors and that the centre's high walls are topped with barbed wire.

Being on an IMB gives a chance to bring the outside in, according to the local board's vice chair, Robert Forsythe: "We can come and go and we are allowed anywhere in the building. We are the eyes and ears of Joe Public and it is our job to make sure that everyone is satisfied with the way the place is being run."

And Mr Forsythe would like to see more interest from the community outside the centre: "The centre is stuck on the A4, along with dozens of other things, which has led to problems with recruitment."

Mrs Johnson echoed these thoughts: "The more people we have on board, the more effective we can be."

The IMB is now looking for at least a dozen more members to help monitor the two centres. A person sitting on a board is entitled to reasonable' time off work in order to carry out their duties, in the same way that a magistrate is, and expenses are reimbursed.

Volunteers will need to give up two days a month, possibly more in the case of an emergency, and will need to attend a monthly board meeting. They do not need previous experience as training will be given, encompassing many aspects such as race relations and security. Both Johnson and Forsythe list an ability to listen' and stamina' as qualities of a good board member, but dissuade those with a political axe to grind.' Information available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/imb or from Janet on 020 7035 2267.