MPs (Members of Parliament) on the Home Affairs Commitee have rightly criticised the state and practice of immigration detention centres.
They concluded that there are ‘serious problems’ in almost every part of the detention system and have demanded an end to indefinite detention and much more done to protect vulnerable detainees, for example those who have been tortured.
We’ve visited nearly all of the UK’s immigration detention centres and can confirm that they are grim and sometimes dangerous places where people are often held for long periods.
Our objective is always to get people out as soon as we possibly can, but we have had cases where female clients were kept in detention for weeks despite being the victims of abuse and suffering from mental health issues. Even where decisions are made to release people these are sometimes not implemented. We sincerely hope some good will come from this report and that the Home Office truly are moving “further and faster” with reforms, as they claim.
Posted 22 March 2019