Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to investigate abuse exposed in undercover BBC Panorama programme
Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors reported last week that the Home Office has finally agreed to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) undertaking an investigation into abuse of detainees at the Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick.
Image credit: WikipediaAbuse at Brook House was exposed by an undercover reporter for the BBC Panorama programme "Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets" broadcast last September. Judicial Review proceedings were brought by two detainees - known as MA and BB - following the broadcast.
According to Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors, MA and BB requested that the Home Office institute an independent inquiry to investigate the credible evidence of inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The detainees' argued that a review was needed of the systemic and institutional failings of the Home Office and G4S's running of detention centres as well as the indications of racism, and a cultural indifference to human suffering that allowed such abuse of detainees and their welfare to be placed at such risk.
Deighton Pierce Glynn's Joanna Thomson, who represented BB, said last week: "Panorama revealed shocking deliberate abuse of detainees by detention staff. And that was probably only the tip of the ice berg. Staff were shown bragging about how they mistreated vulnerable detainees and how they cover up the evidence. It is shameful that it has taken the government over a year to concede that this investigation is needed and it is imperative that the Home Office now acts quickly to give the PPO the powers needed to make this investigation effective."
Also last week, the Guardian published a major series of articles on immigration detention. The Guardian spoke to dozens of current and former detainees who "provided grim testimony" about life across the UK's 10 immigration removal centres.
"An unprecedented snapshot of migrants held in British detention centres found more than half of the sample were either suicidal, seriously ill or victims of torture," the Guardian stated in its main summary article here.
The article 'Worse than prison: life inside Britain's 10 deportation centres' describes an immigration detention estate where "there is no rehabilitation, no criminal sentence, very often no time limit on the loss of liberty," and "[m]any of those incarcerated say the conditions are far worse than actual prison."
The article 'Legal aid access and no family separations: an immigration detention wishlist' draws on information from 11 specialist law firms and NGOs that deal with deportation detainees.
Toufique Hossain of Duncan Lewis Solicitors was quoted in the article as saying: "There is meant to be a presumption to liberty; it is at the cornerstone of our society. It has been left to brave detainees, facing overwhelming tides of legal aid cuts, to challenge the arbitrary and indefinite detention in disgraceful conditions. Time and again they are vindicated by the courts. None of this has troubled successive home secretaries. That is because racist detention policies have been cynically deployed to ensure administrative convenience on the way to expedient political success."
The Guardian looked at the figures behind who is detained and how much it costs in the article 'Britain's immigration detention: how many people are locked up?'. The article stated: "More than 27,000 people were detained in 2017, according to the most recent figures. Detention is now a significant part of the UK's immigration enforcement efforts, but locking up immigrants without a time limit is a relatively recent phenomenon." A separate article details how private contractors are paid millions to run UK detention centres.
In another article, the Guardian reported that a freedom of information request found that suicide attempts have become more frequent in immigration detention centres, with on average about two attempts every day this summer.
Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian here where she called Britain's treatment of migrants "shameful" and said immigration detention must end.
"If you were to walk into an immigration detention centre, one of the first things you'd notice would be the broad regional accents. Mancunian, cockney and other unmistakable British vernacular: the common cultural cues of those who have been here since early childhood, or for 10, 20, 30 years. The Guardian's investigation into migrants held in detention centres – over half of whom were suicidal, seriously ill or had been victims of torture – reveals this trend and much more. Most are imprisoned with no prospect of timely removal; desperate parents are separated from their children; and those who have survived persecution are re-traumatised by a hostile and disbelieving system," Sankey wrote.
She continued: "This system must be ended. Immigration rules can be administered humanely and far more cost-effectively while people live in the community. Thousands of survivors of torture would be spared the pain of being traumatised again. Thousands of children would be reunited with their parents. Mental health crises would be averted, suicides prevented."
In an editorial published last Thursday, the Guardian also said that the UK system of immigration detention is shaming and must end.
Drawing on the Guardian's series of articles, the editorial stated: "the overwhelming impression created by our snapshot of a day in the life of the detention system is of hardship and failure that extends far beyond the 10 centres' walls. A majority of adults in our sample had lived in the UK for at least five years. Almost a third had dependent children in the UK, meaning children as well as parents living with the threat of separation. One detainee who was finally granted asylum told us that he did not expect the trauma of detention to ever leave him.
"Immigration enforcement is difficult. … When people fear being forced to leave the country they have sought to make their home, they feel desperate. That is why it is so important that the system which deals with them is both efficient and humane. At present, the arrangements presided over by [Savid] Javid appear to be neither."