Report finds segregation used a form of punishment for immigration detainees, and to manage detainees with mental health disorders
A report released earlier this month by Medical Justice says that the over use and misuse of segregation continues in immigration removal centres across the UK.
The 116-page report, 'A Secret Punishment' - the misuse of segregation in immigration detention, is available here.
Medical Justice sends independent doctors into immigration removal centres to document evidence of torture and to challenge instances of medical mistreatment.
According to the report, segregation is one of the most severe and dangerous sanctions that can be imposed on detainees, yet there has been surprisingly little scrutiny of its use and between 1,200 and 4,800 immigration detainees are segregated every year.
Segregation in immigration detention involves locking detainees in a solitary cell for up to 23 hours a day.
While Medical Justice says that the great majority of instances of segregation are in accordance with Detention Centre Rules, it found relatively widespread use of segregation which contravened the Detention Centre Rules.
This report draws on the cases of 15 detainees assisted by Medical Justice and highlights a number of abuses including:
• One detainee held in segregation for 22 months
• One schizophrenic detainee died in segregation
• One person was segregated eight times during 800 days of detention
• One detainee was segregated for nine days purely because they were a child
• One woman was assaulted with a riot shield while being taken to segregation
Medical Justice says that segregation was used unlawfully as a form of punishment for detainees, and that segregation was used to manage detainees with mental health disorders.
The report raises concerns over the fact that there is no independent oversight of segregation and minimal monitoring of the extent and conditions of its use.
Dr Hugh Grant Peterkin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Working Group on Asylum said: "Patients with severe mental ill health that cannot be satisfactorily managed should not be in detention in the first place, making segregation of such individuals doubly wrong. The working group endorses the recommendations of Medical Justice's report that overuse or misuse of segregation in immigration detention must end."
Medical Justice says that it believes that the conditions of detention, including segregation, are so detrimental to the health and wellbeing of those detained that the only way to remedy this situation is to close immigration removal centres.
Meanwhile, Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors reported on Monday that Central London County Court ruled that the Home Office unlawfully detained and discriminated against a severely-disabled man on two separate occasions.
The man was denied access to his wheelchair and other disability-related adaptations and equipment he needed.
Deighton Pierce Glynn's Louise Whitfield said: "My client is very pleased with the judge's decision but extremely concerned that the Home Office is continuing to detain disabled people without either assessing their needs or auditing what provision is available at the IRCs. This practice must change or we will continue to see disabled people unlawfully detained and discriminated against again and again."
You can read the judgment here.