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Controversy: UK immigrant detainees play Wii while waiting


According to a report in the UK Telegraph, detainees at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Center in Berkshire are being given Nintendo Wiis while awaiting deportation for "offenses including rape and murder." There is also a claim that if something goes wrong with the console the staff will go to the nearest Argos to pick up a replacement -- wow, they've got Wiis just lying about for replacement purposes there?

The whole report really comes off as a sensationalist hack job. There are numerous quotes of outrage over the amenities the detainees have, but at the end of the day the prisoners are still locked up and not out in society. Government officials say the story's allegations of plasma screens in cells aren't true, and that there is one plasma in the common room with small televisions in each cell. If the Telegraph really wanted to up the scare factor it should have claimed the prisoners were all playing Manhunt 2 on their Wiis and "practicing." Just ignore that Manhunt 2 is still banned in the UK though, it gets in the way of the sensationalism.