Scotland's controversial Dungavel detention centre is to be evacuated and closed for the G8 summit.

The Home Office confirmed the move would be made amid concerns for the safety of staff and detainees.

All 38 detainees will be transferred to other centres by Tuesday when a mass demonstration by G8 Alternatives is planned outside the Lanarkshire site.

Refugee campaigners labelled the decision as "cynical" and believed it was an over-reaction to the event.

The government confirmed the move on Saturday and said the detainees would be returned to Dungavel during the week following the summit.

Safety concerns

A Home Office statement said: "We can confirm that Dungavel will be closed for the duration of the G8 summit.

"It's being done for the safety of everyone at the centre - detainees and staff alike.

"They will be removed to other centres across the country."

The object of the G8 Alternatives protest is to secure the full-time closure of the asylum centre.

Aamer Anwar, a spokesman for the group, described the move by the Home Office as "completely cynical".

We'd like to see the place permanently evacuated Aamer Anwar G8 Alternatives

He said: "We are trying to give a voice to the voiceless and that's why the Home Office has done this, they are concerned we will give hope to the prisoners of Dungavel.

"We'd like to see the place permanently evacuated. This just goes to show that it's really Tony Blair who's pulling the strings up here in Scotland."

Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane, a long-standing campaigner for Dungavel detainees, joined in the condemnation.

Ms Kane said: "What concerns me is that the people in Dungavel don't have the right to hear the voices who are sticking up for them.

"They probably haven't even been told why they are being evacuated and have no idea what is going on.

Peaceful protest

"If the Home Office really had any concerns for the people in Dungavel then they wouldn't brutalise and marginalise them."

Mark Brown, of the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, condemned the evacuation and said it would cause "considerable distress" to those involved.

Mr Brown said there had been a long history of peaceful protest outside the centre and there was no reason to think next week's protest would be any different.

Dungavel has been the focus of debate since it opened in September 2001 because families, including young children, have been held there.