Currently, there is no maximum period for which inmates can be held.

A public inquiry into the center last year described a toxic culture in which migrants were subjected to degrading treatment and the inappropriate use of force.

The public inquiry was launched following a BBC Panorama investigation in 2017 prompted by a whistleblower who worked as a custodial officer at the centre.

The final report identified 19 incidents of ill-treatment of detainees over a five-month period in 2017.

These included unnecessary pain inflicted on the four inmates, dangerous restraint techniques and the forcible movement of the inmates while they were naked or nearly naked.

The report also says that the detainees were targeted with racist, homophobic and humiliating language.

The center itself proved to be overcrowded, dirty and noisy from aircraft at Gatwick, while there was also widespread use of the so-called zombie drug Spice.

In August, another report by the Gatwick Independent Monitoring Committee, which monitors the centre, found “ongoing failings” and last month Kate Eves, who chaired the public inquiry, said the government had agreed to implement only one of the 33 of his recommendations.

The Home Office has previously said it is “committed” to improving immigration detention facilities.

In a statement, the charity Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group compared Brook House to a prison and said “no one should take their last breath there”.

“We mourn that a young man died before he could be released,” it said.

Amnesty International UK’s migrant and refugee rights director, Steve Valdez-Symonds, called the death a “tragedy”.

“Brook House gained notoriety for violence, racism and abuse,” he said.

“We don’t yet know what role this may have played in this man’s death, but these degradations stem from a wider failure to make a system respect human dignity and rights.

“Tragic incidents like this highlight why the government needs to bring humanity to the immigration system as much as any other area of ​​policy – ​​people’s lives depend on it.”